Bill Nye's Answer to the Fermi Paradox

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. But individual species simply don't last for millions of years.

One million years is about it. Evolution will not stop just because a species has reached some level of technology.

In fact, our species is probably evolving faster now than it used to. Perhaps the successor species to homo sapiens will continue to advance technology and reach out to the stars but I wouldn't count on it.

And simply evolving is not the same as destroying itself.

There's also the problem of interstellar distances. They are vaster than most people understand. Here's the best illustration I know:

Our galaxy, Milky Way, has about 300 billion stars. Andromeda has about a trillion. The two galaxies are on a collision course, will crash together in about four or five million years. I recently asked an astronomer I know just how many stars will actually collide with each other when that happens. His answer, "About ten." More will have gravitational affects on each other, but actually crashing together? 10 out of 1.3 trillion stars.

And interstellar distances are even vaster.