History Main / AbsentAliens

* Is consistent with the fact that no aliens have yet been found. (See UsefulNotes/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.)

* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Manifold'' series of (mostly) [[UsefulNotes/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness so-hard-it-hurts]] ScienceFiction revolves around the Fermi Paradox, with each (AlternateContinuity) book providing a different resolution. In ''Literature/ManifoldTime'', there really is no other intelligent life in the entire universe. ''Literature/ManifoldOrigin'' is similar, except it's set in a multiverse with an intelligent species in each universe. ''Literature/ManifoldSpace'' does have aliens, [[spoiler:but recurring natural disasters on a galactic scale keep wiping them out before they can meet.]]

* Is consistent with the fact that no aliens have yet been found. (See MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.)

* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Manifold'' series of (mostly) [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness so-hard-it-hurts]] ScienceFiction revolves around the Fermi Paradox, with each (AlternateContinuity) book providing a different resolution. In ''Literature/ManifoldTime'', there really is no other intelligent life in the entire universe. ''Literature/ManifoldOrigin'' is similar, except it's set in a multiverse with an intelligent species in each universe. ''Literature/ManifoldSpace'' does have aliens, [[spoiler:but recurring natural disasters on a galactic scale keep wiping them out before they can meet.]]

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3426 SCP-3426]] serves as a justification of why there are no SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, again played for horror. [[spoiler:Whenever a civilization reaches Type I civilization status on Kardeshev scale, a mysterious anomalous phenomenon triggers and renders the species completely extinct, going as far as to degrade the laws of physics or reality to do so. Due to that, Foundation is purposefully delaying the technological progress of humanity back until they will find out how to avoid this fate.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 230 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, all without encountering any sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either intelligent aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has a similar backstory (both are even set primarily in the 2500s, interestingly enough). The United Earth Directorate colonized a significant chunk of space, while roughly 60,000 light-years away in the Koprulu Sector, their Terran offshoots ruled dozens of worlds and squabbled among themselves. Despite this, neither faction had ever encountered sapient extraterrestrials. The discovery of the Protoss and the Zerg in the Koprulu Sector by the Terrans, and the following violent first contact, caused massive panic within the UED who prior to FirstContact, had been keeping tabs on the Terrans without their knowledge, but had never bothered to interfere or bring them under control. However, the news of hostile alien life changed that, enough that they decided to send an expeditionary force to bring the Terrans into the fold and exterminate both alien species.

** Amusingly enough, one of the major Covenant systems (where the Jackal homeworld is located) is only 41 light-years from Earth. They missed it for hundreds of years even though it's closer to Earth than some of Earth's own colonies!
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has a similar backstory (both are even set primarily in the 2500s, interestingly enough). The United Earth Directorate colonized a significant chunk of space, enough that even 60,000 light-years away in the Koprulu Sector their offshoots rule dozens of worlds, but in that time they never encountered sapient extraterrestrials. The discovery of the Protoss and Zerg in the Koprulu Sector by the Terrans (and the following violent first contact) immediately piques their interest (partly because they [[EvilIsNotAToy want to use the Zerg as a weapon against the Protoss]]) and causes them to send an expeditionary fleet to bring the Koprulu Sector back under control when they had previously forgotten about it. The expedition ends badly.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 200 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, all without encountering any sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either intelligent aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 200 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, creating sentient AI, all without encountering sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either sapient aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 200 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, creating sentient AI, and having multiple [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression interstellar wars]], all without encountering sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either sapient aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 200 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, creating sapient AI, and having multiple [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression interstellar wars]], all without encountering sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either sapient aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...

* In ''VideoGame/{{Celestus}}'', while there is some alien plant or animal life (for certain values of alien, as every single ecology in the galaxy descends from the same planet through {{Precursor|s}} [[{{Terraform}} terraformation]]), humanity is canonically established as the single intelligent specie.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', humanity has no qualms about cracking apart planets (and thereby destroying entire solar systems) for resources, since there are no aliens around to protest. At least until the game begins, [[spoiler:and that's a bit of a cop out, since although the original [[ArtifactOfDoom Marker]] may have been created by aliens, the one in the game is a reverse-engineered human copy]], and the Necromorphs are [[ZombieApocalypse reanimated human corpses]]. Justified in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', as [[spoiler:intelligent alien life ''did'' happen to exist and was rather abundant at some point millions of years ago, but they, like humanity, fell prey to the Marker's influence and were all wiped out by the Brethren Moons.]]

->''"I remember telling my college professor I wanted to study Xenoarchaeology. He laughed right in my face. 'There’s nothing to study,' he said. 'It’s all dead space. No alien life exists out in the universe.' In a way, I guess he was right..."''

* In ''Literature/Voidskipper'' there doesn't seem to be any sign of life that didn't ultimately originate from Earth, but the sheer level of [[TranshumansInSpace transhu]][[TranshumanAliens manism]] at play more than makes up for that.

** The alien planet ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' takes place on, meanwhile, has some native life but didn't have any intelligent lifeforms before the human colony ship Eldridge crashed there.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov: Because Creator/JohnWCampbell (editor of ''Magazine/AstoundingScienceFiction'') insisted that [[HumanityIsSuperior humans always triumph against aliens]], Dr Asimov tended to avoid the presence of alien civilizations in works which would otherwise expect to encounter them. The following examples include stories where Dr Asimov [[JustifiedTrope gave a reason for the absence of aliens]].

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3426 SCP-3426]] serves as a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] of why there are no SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, again played for horror. [[spoiler:Whenever a civilization reaches Type I civilization status on Kardeshev scale, a mysterious anomalous phenomenon triggers and renders the species completely extinct, going as far as to degrade the laws of physics or reality to do so. Due to that, Foundation is purposefully delaying the technological progress of humanity back until they will find out how to avoid this fate.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', humanity has no qualms about cracking apart planets (and thereby destroying entire solar systems) for resources, since there are no aliens around to protest. At least until the game begins, [[spoiler:and that's a bit of a cop out, since although the original [[ArtifactOfDoom Marker]] may have been created by aliens, the one in the game is a reverse-engineered human copy]], and the Necromorphs are [[ZombieApocalypse reanimated human corpses]]. {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', as [[spoiler:intelligent alien life ''did'' happen to exist and was rather abundant at some point millions of years ago, but they, like humanity, fell prey to the Marker's influence and were all wiped out by the Brethren Moons.]]

* The "aliens" in ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'', known as the Abh, are really genetically-engineered humans. The novels elaborate a little further in that while there are a few, exceptionally rare planets with their own native plant and animal life (protagonist Jinto's homeplanet of Martine is one such) there is nothing approaching intelligent life other than humans and their [[TranshumanAliens descendants]].

* ''Literature/{{RCN}}'': There are several alien species known and evidence as well of three or four {{Precursor}} races, but the extant aliens unimportant in the series because most of them can't breathe humans' atmosphere so they don't need to interact with humans (the only one the protagonists interact with is a LizardFolk mercenary bodyguarding a local dignitary, who takes a shine to Adele's BattleButler Tovera).

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' reveals in a FreezeFrameBonus (without ever addressing it) that the contents of Laplace’s Box include [[spoiler:a provision for the Earth Federation government to prepare for a potential [[AlienInvasion “extraterrestrial biological emergency”]], but even 150 years into the Universal Century, there’s still no sign that aliens even exist.]]

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' reveals in a FreezeFrameBonus (without ever addressing it) that the contents of Laplace’s Box include [[spoiler:a provision for the Earth Federation government to prepare for an [[AlienInvasion “extraterrestrial biological emergency”]], but so far there’s been no sign of this sort of thing ever happening.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': the backstory of the franchise involves humanity going on a 500 year spree of space colonization, settling hundreds of worlds and moons, advancing technology to a level previously thought impossible, creating sapient AI, and having multiple [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression interstellar wars]], all without encountering sapient aliens (there were alien animals on some colonies though). In-universe, a lot of characters thought that either sapient aliens just didn't exist or that whatever ones existed were so far away that they'd never make contact (the UNSC exists in a 100 light year bubble radiating out from Earth, unfathomably large to us but minuscule on a galactic scale). Then [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] entered the scene...

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2669 SCP-2669]] plays this as a point of horror. It's a space probe launched by the Foundation in 2004 to look for alien life on exoplanets. [[spoiler:It contains the consciousness of a Foundation researcher named Asma Tareen, who was once excited to look for new life in the universe, but found not even a speck of it no matter how far she travelled out. [[EarthShatteringKaboom Now she's travelling back to Earth at five times lightspeed, and she's an utter psychopath who probably will not care to slow down once she gets here]].]]