Bill Nye's Answer to the Fermi Paradox

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. Thank you for posting that.

Time is too long, space is too large. That sums it up perfectly.

There is a to my mind strange assumption that a technological civilization will last forever, or at least for many millions of years. That flies in the face of what we already know about evolution. I am never suggesting that a technological civilization will necessarily destroy itself before it is able to attain interstellar travel, rather that both interstellar travel is so incredible difficult and the life span of a species is so short that they may never be able to spread beyond their own solar system.

Maybe closer to the center of the galaxy, where stars are a whole lot closer together, can interstellar travel take place on a meaningful scale. But those aliens would have zero interest in exploring our edge of the galaxy. Why bother? They'd have plenty to keep them occupied within a hundred or so light years of their own home planet. We're a good 50,000 light years away. Keep in mind that faster than light travel will probably never be possible, so planning a journey of at least 50,000 years (and that's assuming you can achieve 99.99% of c) makes no sense.

We, at the edge of our galaxy, look into the vastness, wonder if we are alone, and make feeble attempts to contact others. But they probably aren't there. Or at least not contemporaneous with us.