The Fermi Paradox: Do we need to seek the answer?
by Mirosław Wójcik
„And where are they?” – asked once Enrico Fermi; an Italian theoretician physicist. This short, but simultaneously profound question, soon became known just as the Fermi Paradox. Officially, it hasn’t been judged so far. Nowadays, however, we are much closer to do this, as new astronomical facilities and instruments are built and exoworlds found. Nevertheless, do we really need to seek the aforementioned answer…?
One should admit, that the Universe itself doesn’t make this task easier. It’s the boundless infinity which still expands its territory, according to Hubble-Lemaître law. If it sounds too abstractly, numbers come on the scene of these efforts. Billions of stars everywhere gathered in galaxies, their groups, super ones and clusters. On the second edge, we; proud inhabitants of the planet Earth. Although „one giant leap for a mankind” was made, more than 50 years ago, a large-scale space exploration didn’t dominate the twenty first century. Our contemporary technology still doesn’t allow to set man's foot on the surface of the nearest planet of the domestic solar system and, the more, on the alien ones. Many threats connected with expeditions to new terra incognita haven't been yet comprehensively estimated.
Naturally, as more countries participate in the exploration of space, various activities are undertaken (Euclid, Artemis, JWST). However, they’re significantly different from previously drawn visions. Yes. We do some searches for extraterrestrial life. They've even been intensified in the recent years. New projects are run, such as, for example: The Galileo Project, The Breakthrough Initiatives. Therefore, surely information about us already reached somewhere, as we constantly send hundreds of thousands of various data into vast space every day, saying: „Hey there! Here we are!”. Nobody replied…?
Strange? Something obvious? Maybe both yes and no. The point is whether we, as a species, communicate in a universal language from the ETCs' point of view. Apart from this, we bet on maths which is, on the other hand, justified in a lot of ways. We shall also not forget that nobody gave us precedence, except ourselves, to make the discovery of such great importance. Other difficulties, barriers? Ignorance can be the one if not the most important, albeit – by following direct and indirect clues given to us in many ways – we try to resolve the riddle of the skies shrouded by the mystery. We don’t posses enough, broadly understood, resources to precisely scrutinize all of stars – or only those ones that aroused our interest – to definitely state that, indeed, there is nobody out there…