The literature shows that while civilizational self-destruction is frequently cited as one possible explanation or partial solution for the Fermi paradox, multiple alternative scientific hypotheses exist that resolve the paradox without requiring self-destruction.
pmc Sci Prog Sci Prog 4462 sciprog SCI Science Progress 0036-8504 2047-7163 SAGE Publications PMC11307330 PMC11307330.1 11307330 11307330 39105260 10.1177/00368504241272491 10.1177_00368504241272491 1 Biology & Life Sciences Potential incompatibility of inherited behavior patterns with civilization: Implications for Fermi paradox https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2889-2544 Vinn Olev 1 1 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, 37546 University of Tartu , Tartu, Estonia Olev Vinn, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Ravila 14A, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
All intelligent organisms presumably originally have a number of inherited behavior patterns (IBPs) that are not fine-tuned for conditions prevailing in civilized communities. Indeed, some IBPs may be highly incompatible with such conditions and have high potential to induce self-destruction. These patterns may include responses of social organisms seeking power over conspecifics in relation to harvesting and consuming energy. It is possible that all emerging civilizations could face problems associated with incompatible IBPs, which may partially explain why civilizations are apparently rare (since we have not detected any others in our galaxy).
Astrobiology extraterrestrial civilizations extinctions animal behavior pmc-status-qastatus 0 pmc-status-live yes pmc-status-embargo no pmc-status-released yes pmc-prop-open-access yes pmc-prop-olf no pmc-prop-manuscript no pmc-prop-legally-suppressed no pmc-prop-has-pdf yes pmc-prop-has-supplement no pmc-prop-pdf-only no pmc-prop-suppress-copyright no pmc-prop-is-real-version no pmc-prop-is-scanned-article no pmc-prop-preprint no pmc-prop-in-epmc yes pmc-license-ref CC BY-NC typesetter ts19 cover-date July-September 2024 Introduction “Fermi paradox” is an astrobiological paradox that refers to an expectation that our own civilization is unlikely to have been the first to have arisen throughout our galactic neighborhood and it would likely have been preceded by other civilizations having an advantage of thousands of our centuries of technological development.
1 One can assume then, that such enormously advanced civilizations would have had ample opportunity to have either visited us or, at least, sent decipherable signals to us by now. 1 The lack of such contacts needs an explanation. In 1988, Hanson composed a list of evolutionary steps necessary for the appearance of civilization. 2 He argued that the Great Silence implies that one or more of these steps are very improbable, and there is a “Great Filter” along the path between simple dead matter and explosive life. It is likely that the vast majority of matter that starts evolving along this path never makes it.
3 This puzzling situation, often termed the “Fermi Paradox,” prompts ongoing research and speculation to resolve the apparent contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial life and the lack of observable evidence. 3 The aim of the current study is to discuss the possibility that the supposed great filter may have universal biological roots related to evolutionary animal behavior. Inherited behavior patterns (IBPs) The behavior of complex organisms is in some part inherited from their evolutionary ancestors.
10 Ultimately, incompatible IBPs could lead a civilization to self-destruct by consuming available energetic resources more quickly than they can replaced (or technologies for exploiting new resources can be developed) and/or the application of mass destructive technologies in conflicts between packs. Possible IBPs operating in human civilization Possible IBPs also operate in human civilization and several human values are based on them, such as leadership (status in the pack) and material wealth (possession of energetic resources).
Hence, the emergence of intelligence and civilization will always probably be accompanied by the evolution of incompatible IBPs for energetic solutions. It is also possible that only social organisms will develop civilizations, if intense communication between individuals in packs is
11 Later other authors, using different values, have produced a range from fewer than 100 to several million ACCs. 12 The Fermi Paradox argues that previously used values in the Drake equation have been too high. Stern and Gerya 12 suggested that the fraction of planets with life that gives rise to intelligent civilizations should be broken into two variables: f oc (the fraction of habitable worlds with major continents and oceans) and f pt (the fraction of these planets that have had plate tectonics for at least 0.5 billion years), where f oc ⋅ f pt = f i (planets that harbor life and will develop intelligent civilizations).
Based on their modified Drake Equation, Stern and Gerya 12 suggested that the Fermi Paradox may partially be resolved if the value of f oc ⋅ f pt is extremly low. Their initial approximations indicate that f oc could be around 0.0002–0.01 whereas f pt is less than 0.17, making their product ( f i ) minuscule (<0.00003 to <0.002). 12 This drastically diminishes the potential number of ACCs to <0.006 to <100,000 in the galaxy. 12 Further reductions are based on re-evaluating the length of time ACCs communicate (L), which can approximately be 400–7,800,000 years due to societal collapse 13 and maximal duration of a species.
AbstractIt has been recently proposed DeVito [(2019) On the meaning of Fermi's paradox.Futures, 389–414] that aminimalnumber of contacts with alien radio-communicative civilizations could be justified by their logarithmically slow rate of growth in the Galaxy. Here we further develop this approach to the Fermi paradox, with the purpose of expanding the ensemble of the possible styles of growth that are consistent with the hypothesis of a minimal number of contacts. Generalizing the approach in DeVito (2019), we show that a logarithmic style of growth is still found. We also find that a style of growth following a power law would be admissible, however characterized by an exponent less than one, hence describing a sublinear increase in the number of communicative civilizations, still qualitatively in agreement with DeVito (2019). No solutions are found indicating a superlinear increase in the number of communicative civilizations, following for example an exponentially diverging law, which would cause, in the long run, an unsustainable proliferation. Although largely speculative, our findings corroborate the idea that a sublinear rate of increase in the number of communicative civilizations in the Galaxy could constitute a further resolution of Fermi paradox, implying a constant and minimal – but not zero – number of contacts.
Faced with such a prospect, physicist Enrico Fermi asked a question several decades ago that is now called the Fermi paradox: where are they? If life and intelligence are common and have such tremendous capacity for growth, why is there not a network of galactic civilizations whose presence extends even into a “latecomer” planetary system like ours? Several solutions have been suggested to the Fermi paradox. Perhaps life is common but intelligence (or at least technological civilization) is rare. Perhaps such a network will come about in the future but has not yet had the time to develop. Maybe there are invisible streams of data flowing past us all the time that we are not advanced enough or sensitive enough to detect. Maybe advanced species make it a practice not to interfere with immature, developing consciousness such as our own. Or perhaps civilizations that reach a certain level of technology then self-destruct, meaning there are no other civilizations now existing in our Galaxy. We do not yet know whether any advanced life is out there and, if it is, why we are not aware of it. Still, you might want to keep these issues in mind as you read the rest of this chapter.
Geo-engineering Gone Awry: A New Partial Solution of Fermi's Paradox
Another partial solution of Fermi's famous paradox is proposed, based on our increased understanding of geophysics, geo-engineering and climatology. It has been claimed in the recent astrobiological literature (for instance, in the recent controversial "rare Earth" theory of Ward and Brownlee), that geological activity of a terrestrial planet is an important precondition for the emergence of complex metazoan life forms. Technological civilizations arising on such planets will be, at some point of their histories or another, tempted to embark upon massive geo-engineering projects. If, for some reasons only very recently understood, large-scale geo-engineering is in fact much more dangerous than previously thought, the scenario in which at least some of the extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way self-destruct in this manner gains plausibility. In addition, we speculate on possible reasons, both physical and culturological, which could make such a threat even more pertinent on an average Galactic terrestrial planet than on Earth. Published as: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 57, pp.
[physics/0308058] Geo-engineering Gone Awry: A New Partial Solution of Fermi's Paradox Skip to main content Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search --> Physics > Geophysics arXiv:physics/0308058 (physics) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2003] Title: Geo-engineering Gone Awry: A New Partial Solution of Fermi's Paradox Authors: Milan M. Cirkovic , Richard Cathcart View a PDF of the paper titled Geo-engineering Gone Awry: A New Partial Solution of Fermi's Paradox, by Milan M. Cirkovic and 1 other authors View PDF Abstract: Another partial solution of Fermi's famous paradox is proposed, based on our increased understanding of geophysics, geo-engineering and climatology.
It has been claimed in the recent astrobiological literature (for instance, in the recent controversial "rare Earth" theory of Ward and Brownlee), that geological activity of a terrestrial planet is an important precondition for the emergence of complex metazoan life forms. Technological civilizations arising on such planets will be, at some point of their histories or another, tempted to embark upon massive geo-engineering projects.
If, for some reasons only very recently understood, large-scale geo-engineering is in fact much more dangerous than previously thought, the scenario in which at least some of the extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way self-destruct in this manner gains plausibility. In addition, we speculate on possible reasons, both physical and culturological, which could make such a threat even more pertinent on an average Galactic terrestrial planet than on Earth.
Comments: 14 pages, no figures Subjects: Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) ; Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) Cite as: arXiv:physics/0308058 [physics.geo-ph] (or arXiv:physics/0308058v1 [physics.geo-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.physics/0308058 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 57, pp. 209-215 (2004) Submission history From: Milan M. Cirkovic [ view email ] [v1] Thu, 14 Aug 2003 14:44:24 UTC (113 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Geo-engineering Gone Awry: A New Partial Solution of Fermi's Paradox, by Milan M.
the point at which human civilization becomes unstable and self-destructs, one of Hawking's explanations for the Fermi paradox. To counter this, Hawking
Transhumanism is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates using existing, emerging, and speculative technologies to enhance the human condition, particularly by extending longevity and improving cognition, health, and well-being beyond current biological limitations. Drawing on developments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as longstanding themes in s
While many transhumanist theorists and advocates seek to apply reason, science and technology to reduce poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe, transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve the quality of all life, while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating congenital mental and physical barriers.
Transhumanist philosophers argue that there not only exists a perfectionist ethical imperative for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition, but that it is possible and desirable for humanity to enter a transhuman phase of existence in which humans enhance themselves beyond what is naturally human. In such a phase, natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate participatory or directed evolution.
Some theorists such as Ray Kurzweil think that the pace of technological innovation is accelerating and that the next 50 years may yield not only radical technological advances, but possibly a technological singularity, which may fundamentally change the nature of human beings. Transhumanists who foresee this massive technological change generally maintain that it is desirabl
Leon, which became popular (and notorious) at the time of its publication in 1799, but is now mostly forgotten. St. Leon may have inspired his daughter Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. There is debate about whether the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche can be considered an influence on transhumanism, despite its exaltation of the Übermensch (superhuman), due to its emphasis on self-actualization rather than technological transformation. The transhumanist philosophies of More and Sorgner have been influenced strongly by Nietzschean thinking.
Moravec's ideas and transhumanism have also been characterised as a "complacent" or "apocalyptic" variant of posthumanism and contrasted with "cultural posthumanism" in humanities and the arts. While such a "cultural posthumanism" would offer resources for rethinking the relationships between humans and increasingly sophisticated machines, transhumanism and similar posthumanisms are, in this view, not abandoning obsolete concepts of the "autonomous liberal subject", but are expanding its "prerogatives" into the realm of the posthuman. Transhumanist self-characterisations as a continuation of humanism and Enlightenment thinking correspond with this view.
The philosophy of transhumanism is closely related to technoself studies, an interdisciplinary domain of scholarly research dealing with all aspects of human identity in a
In contrast, some proponents of transhumanism view it as essential to humanity's survival. For instance, Stephen Hawking points out that the "external transmission" phase of human evolution, where knowledge production and knowledge management is more important than transmission of information via evolution, may be the point at which human civilization becomes unstable and self-destructs, one of Hawking's explanations for the Fermi paradox.
To counter this, Hawking emphasizes either self-design of the human genome or mechanical enhancement (e.g., brain-computer interface) to enhance human intelligence and reduce aggression, without which he implies human civilization may be too stupid collectively to survive an increasingly unstable system, resulting in societal collapse. While many people believe that all transhumanists are striving for immortality, that is not necessarily true. Hank Pellissier, managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (2011–2012), surveyed transhumanists. He found that, of the 818 respondents, 23.8% did not want immortality.
As proponents of self-improvement and body modification, transhumanists tend to use existing technologies and techniques that supposedly improve cognitive and physical performance, while engaging in routines and lifestyles designed to improve health and longevity. Depending on their age, some transhumanists, such as Kurzweil, express concern that they will not live to reap the benefits of future technologies. However, many have a great interest in life extension strategies and in funding research in cryonics to make the latter a viable option of last resort, rather than remaining an unproven method.
In her 1992 book Science as Salvation, philosopher Mary Midgley traces the notion of achieving immortality by transcendence of the material human body (echoed in the transhumanist tenet of mind uploading) to a group of male scientific thinkers of the early 20th century, including J. B. S. Haldane and members of his circle. She characterizes these ideas as "quasi-scientific dreams and prophesies" involving visions of escape from the body coupled with "self-indulgent, uncontrolled power-fantasies".
These criticisms are also voiced by non-libertarian transhumanist advocates, especially self-described democratic transhumanists, who believe that the majority of current or future social and environmental issues (such as unemployment and resource depletion) must be addressed by a combination of political and technological solutions (like a guaranteed minimum income and alternative technology).
We propose the Temporal Constraint Hypothesis (TCH), a multi-layered, physically grounded resolution to the Fermi Paradox. TCH argues that the absence of detected extraterrestrial signals, artifacts, or biosignatures from technological civilizations is the statistically expected outcome of our observational situation, requiring no special catastrophic filters, biochemical rarity, or behavioral conceal-Sixth, we extend VDD to biosignature detection and clarify the scope of TCH: the framework explains the absence of technological signatures specifically; biosignature absence is a distinct empirical question addressed by complementary frameworks. The fully integrated TCH predicts null detection as the base-rate expectation across all current SETI modalities, makes specific falsifiable predictions for SKA-era and ELT-era surveys, and dissolves the Fermi Paradox without invoking any parameter that is inconsistent with established physics.
Description:
This repository contains a speculative essay and a numerical simulation exploring the idea that gravitational fields and a quantum phase jitter (motivated by the Unified Applicable Time, UAT, and the Unified Causal Principle, UPC) act as a natural filter that scrambles weak, information-rich artificial signals while preserving strong periodic beacons like pulsars. The Fermi paradox is reinterpreted not as an absence of civilizations, but as a fundamental limit on the coherence of interstellar communication.
Contents:
LaTeX source and compiled PDF of the essay "The Gravitational Phase Filter".
Python script (filter_simulation.py) that generates the illustrative figure comparing a weak modulated signal with a strong pulse train under increasing phase jitter.
Theoretical background:
UAT: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17729221
UPC: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17718670
Note: This work is an exploratory intellectual exercise, not a peer-reviewed scientific paper. It is shared as a conceptual contribution to the debate on the Fermi paradox and the limits of signal propagation in a causally regulated universe.
Author: Miguel Ángel Percudani (Puan, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
The Fermi paradox is an epistemic problem concerning our detection competence with respect to the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. As a relevant issue, it deserves to be explored in detail. This article starts by presenting an appropriate level of expressive power in which the Fermi paradox can be logically developed. After setting this framework, it introduces an explanation for the situation of non-detectability: it is argued that we are not able to detect advanced extraterrestrial intelligences because they are supposed to have performed a kind of unconstrained transcension.
The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence remains one of the most profound questions in modern astrobiology and astronomy. Although advances in exoplanet discovery, planetary habitability studies, biosignature detection, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have greatly expanded our understanding of potentially life-supporting environments, no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations has yet been obtained. This apparent contradiction between the abundance of potentially habitable worlds and the absence of confirmed contact is commonly known as the Fermi Paradox or the Great Silence. This review synthesizes current knowledge on extraterrestrial habitability, evolutionary pathways to intelligence, technosignatures, advanced technological civilizations, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), and future SETI strategies within a unified conceptual framework. The principal contribution is the development of the
Civilization Detectability–Concealment Framework (CDCF)
, which treats detectability as a dynamic and evolving property of civilizations rather than a fixed consequence of their existence. The framework introduces three interconnected concepts. First, the
Detectability Window Hypothesis
proposes that civilizations may remain observable only during limited phases of technological development before transitioning toward more efficient and less detectable modes of communication or existence. Second, the
Asymmetric Awareness Hypothesis
suggests that significant technological disparities may allow advanced civilizations to detect emerging civilizations such as humanity without reciprocal detectability. Third, the
Concealment Spectrum Framework
examines how technological, environmental, and intentional factors may progressively reduce the observability of advanced civilizations. In addition, the review presents a structured scientific assessment of UAP observations, emphasizing the distinction between unexplained phenomena and evidence of extraterrestrial origin, and evaluates the possibility of extraterrestrial probes or long-duration technological artifacts within the Solar System based on current scientific knowledge. A multimodal SETI strategy is also proposed, integrating radio, optical, infrared, atmospheric, and artificial intelligence-assisted technosignature searches. The analysis suggests that the absence of confirmed extraterrestrial contact does not necessarily imply the absence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Instead, it may result from the combined effects of evolutionary uncertainty, limited detectability windows, concealment processes, technological asymmetry, and vast spatial and temporal separations. By integrating these factors within a single framework, the CDCF provides a new perspective on the Great Silence, identifies testable predictions, and offers a multidisciplinary foundation for future research in astrobiology, SETI, and technosignature science.
Everything we examined (9)
This check searched the claim as stated. It did not run a separate search for evidence against it.