In other words, every possible solution to the paradox is personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1: “the aliens are deliberately not contacting us.” = “they don’t like us, we’re not good enough for them; there’s some reason why they’ve judged us unworthy to know them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2: “They’re too far away to contact us, or for us to detect them.” = “We will be alone forever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. “It’s the nature of life to destroy itself before reaching its fullest potential.” = “We are by nature flawed and foolish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. “They failed to overcome an extraordinary civilizational or evolutionary obstacle, and so never developed to a level where they could contact us, or we could detect them.” (ie. ‘great filter’ hypothesis) = “Our biggest challenges as a species and\/or as a civilization are yet to come. We, too, might fail to overcome the same obstacles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. “They’re all hiding from each other.” (ie. the ‘dark forest’ hypothesis) = “We are by nature violent and paranoid.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. “They’re here, but the government keeps them secret.” = “My government thinks that I’m untrustworthy and stupid, or prone to panic, or that for some other reason I don’t deserve to know the truth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. “They’re here, but they reveal themselves to very few people, perhaps according to a first-contact plan.” = “If I am not among those who get to see them, then I am unworthy, unimportant, undeserving, or for some other reason there’s nothing special about me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. “They’re not contacting us because they wish to ‘contain’ us, to prevent our wars from spilling out into space.” = “We are a violent, war-like, and dangerous species.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. “There are no aliens.” = “The massive responsibility to craft or to discover the meaning of life falls to us, and us alone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice the tragic character of each of these propositions; tragic in the sense that they provide no validation, no reason for us to feel good about ourselves. Some even provide a footing for a kind of grim pseudo-intellectual misanthropy: the modern version of Original Sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to tie a ribbon on it: if tomorrow the aliens revealed themselves to all humanity, the search for meaning would only get more complicated, and not simpler. We would have a new immensity of ‘the other’ to face, and we’d have to invent whole new ways to configure ourselves and respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So! This weekend is the first in around six weeks in which I will have no visitors. Perfect for a hike to the lake, and for cooking a nice dinner for myself, and for fitting these thoughts into the theme of the novel – and for finding a way to turn that tragedy into something beautiful. As I think we all must do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Image by Brandon Siu, from unsplash dot com. There’s a setting in my novel which looks like this.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, for my work-in-progress science-fiction novel, I’m researching the Fermi Paradox. Before you ask: No, I’ve never seen a UFO, and I find the conspiracy theories about government cover-ups implausible. I’m researching the Fermi Paradox because last night, while walking … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.brendanmyers.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/brandon-siu-nI7knd5sQfo-unsplash-scaled.jpg\")
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