History UsefulNotes / FermiParadox

* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'' trilogy offers a rather [[CosmicHorrorStory cynical]] answer to the paradox: [[spoiler:due to the extreme difficulty of communicating across the gulf of space, the relative ease of StarKilling, and the need for as much resources as you can get in the face of the Universe's inevitable heat death, alien civilizations invariably [[DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs annihilate one another upon detection out of paranoia and competition]]. The main character compares the universe to a dark forest full of hunters: anyone with a sense of self-preservation cannot risk exposing themselves without being immediately shot on sight by the hunters lurking nearby. Likewise, [[GoodIsNotSoft however noble your own intentions]], you can't risk ''not'' firing at another hunter for fear of that hunter discovering and coming after ''you'' sometime in the future]].

* InvisibleAliens is more tricky, as there may be all kinds of reasons we might not see the aliens that are out there. Even if life is common, ''intelligent'' life might be rare for any of a number of reasons. And even if intelligent life is common, it might be hiding, or it might not last very long. If they're bizarre StarfishAliens, we may simply not recognize what we're looking at. If they're SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, we may not even have discovered the technologies required to detect them.[[note]]Currently the primary method of searching for aliens is to listen for possible extraterrestrial radio transmissions. But if alien civilizations tend to only use radio for a brief time before moving on to some other technology we haven't conceived of yet, there would be only be a brief window to detect any given planet's transmissions. Additionally, our own radio broadcasts increasingly use technologies such as spread spectrum and compression that make them look more and more like noise-- though Earth would still be notably generating an unusual amount of RF energy.[[/note]] And if they're more than sufficiently advanced, their intelligence might have led to some sort of [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcendence]] that we can't detect, even in theory. Alternatively, they may be perfectly visible already, but TheMenInBlack are making sure the general public doesn't realize it.

* AbsentAliens is [[OccamsRazor the simple solution]], and makes for a fairly straightforward story: the entire universe (or at least our galaxy) is essentially uninhabited, and out there for us to settle freely. The main issue here is that, as stated above, life should be everywhere. In fact, the Rare Earth hypothesis has the opposite premise to the Fermi paradox: several key factors had to take place for Earth to harbor life first, and multicellular life later. Those factors may happen elsewhere, but all of them at once? And we haven't yet fully figured out how life appeared in the first place, so the requirements may be even higher. Life may not be so simple after all.

* [[AfterTheEnd Dead Aliens]] is another simple, but much more terrifying solution to the Fermi Paradox. The reason we haven't detected alien life is because they're all dead, wiped out from whatever evolutionary, cultural, or technological barrier that they couldn't overcome. This barrier is known as "Great Filter," a threat orders of magnitude so powerful that it destroyes nearly every species that it encounters. The conclusion of this solution often goes one of two ways depending on where the filter was or will be in our planet's timeline. Either it's behind us, which means HumansAreSpecial and we managed to succeed in the cosmic game of life against all odds; or it's ahead of us, which means we are doomed and, [[YouAreAlreadyDead for all intents and purposes, good as dead]].

There are numerous proposed solutions to this question, which break down into two broad categories:

* In ''Literature/VeilOfMadness'', the reason humanity hasn't found any aliens is because Earth is smack in the middle of the titular "Veil of Madness", which causes violent insanity in any intelligent life that lives there, usually driving them to extinction. Humanity is the only race to have avoided this (well, one other race hasn't destroyed themselves quite yet, but they're definitely affected and they haven't got out of the Stone Age).

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has multiple alien species that have all been spacefaring for roughly 2000 years. However, for the most part they are [[AlienNonInterferenceClause discouraged from interfering with intelligent races that have yet to develop spaceflight]]. Some of them do so anyways for various reasons, but they never did it with humans for the simple reason that they never found us. The Mass Effect Galaxy relies on a [[PortalNetwork network of lightspeed gateways]] to achieve FasterThanLightTravel. However a large number of these gateways, called Mass Relays, are inactive or dormant, including the only one that links Earth to the rest of the Galaxy. A devastating BugWar in the past caused the [[FictionalUnitedNations Citadel Council]] to make it illegal to reactivate dormant relays until extensive research has been done to determine where they go, in order to prevent a similar war form happening again. The Earth Relay in particular was not only dormant, it was covered in so much ice that for centuries humans thought it was a moon [[note]] Specifically, Charon, one of the moons that orbits Pluto[[/note]], until the discovery of an alien technology archive on Mars showed them how to reactivate it.
** The other reason is that every 50,000 years or so, an [[MechanicalAbomination unimaginably ancient and powerful machine race]] called [[AbusivePrecursors the Reapers]], marches in and exterminates all spacefaring species across the Galaxy. In addition, after every cycle of extermination, the Reapers make sure to erase any evidence of themselves along with most archaeological remnants of the races they just wiped out. Only leaving enough evidence for the next cycle to know that there were others before them who mysteriously vanished.

* One of the attacks used by the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', in which they [[spoiler:fling a meteor-like heap of space junk that's nearly the size of the entire ''screen'' through a [[ThinkingUpPortal dimensional rift]]]], is called "Fermi Paradox Answer" in the Japanese guidebook. Said FinalBoss is [[spoiler:the newly completed body of a [[AliensAreBastards sociopathic alien conqueror]]]], so it's fitting.

* ''Videogame/DeadSpace'' resolves the paradox in the name. No advanced life has been found because... well, [[spoiler:it's dead. Every advanced civilization has found Markers, been overwhelmed by the Necromorphs, and had their combined biomass formed into a new Brethren Moon, the largest, most intelligent form of the Necromorphs]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' eventually covers this with the ''Endwalker'' expansion. Every other race in the known universe was dead or dying when they were found, which sets up pretty much every main conflict in the entire game.

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