The Fermi Paradox has been one of science’s greatest mysteries since the mid-20th Century (1). In 1950, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi loudly proclaimed, “But where is everybody?” in reference to the lack of contact with extraterrestrial species. If the universe, or even the Milky Way, is so large, and there are stars and planets billions of years older than our home, then certainly intelligent life should have visited our planet by now. Yet, we have not been directly visited by alien life, nor is there any proof in historical or archeological records.

The leading contenders to solve the Fermi Paradox are either that intelligent life is incredibly rare or that there are so called “great filters” that stop life from continuing onward. Both explanations can certainly be related, however the former describes that a lot of things need to be in the right place at the right time in order for life to even start: a habitable zone, the right chemical compounds, the right “breeding” areas for life, the right evolutionary steps leading to large brains, etc. The latter is much more bleak, stating that there are a series of hurdles that life (and eventually intelligent life) need to overcome in order to continue onward. These are generally mass extinction events such as meteors and climate catastrophes, but can also be future existential threats such as nuclear warfare or rogue artificial general intelligence.

The wonderful Hank Green recently posited his theory, or at least brought to light a more obscure theory, a few weeks back (2). In it, he states that perhaps it is the nature of human life to focus on quality rather than quantity after enough time has passed. Human nature thus far has been to expand resource consumption as much as possible, meaning that we have sought to colonize new lands when we want to expand, create new sources of energy that are more efficient to use, and consume generally more of anything when we simply want more (i.e.: quantity). However, Hank posits that perhaps when things get to a certain point when we have enough, we start looking inwards versus outwards and try to improve our existing conditions as much as possible so we can be content with what we have.

This is quite a lovely take on the Fermi Paradox. It does not stoke the existential fires that the first two proposed theories do. If this were true, it would certainly be good for our species as we do not have to worry about our planet being colonized by alien overlords.

In the spirit of Hank’s more optimistic take on the Fermi Paradox, I too would like to throw a relatively light take in the ring. Perhaps, life on this planet is being incubated by another intelligent species, similar to a zoo nurturing an egg from an endangered species so that it can hatch. Much like the zoo protects from unwanted outside forces, perhaps so too is an extraterrestrial species acting as our zookeeper (so to speak) protecting us from other alien species who would want to colonize our planet. Those invaders can colonize other solar systems, just like other species can prey on eggs laid out in the wild. However, the ones under protection are safe from harm.

This is not a novel take. In fact, this is already dubbed the “Zoo Hypothesis” (3). If Wikipedia is any benchmark, then there already are very well formulated arguments in favor of the “Zoo Hypothesis”. There even appear to be dozens of science fiction tales with the “Zoo Hypothesis” as a plot point (none of which I admittedly have consumed). However, many scientists push back on this idea stating that it is quasi-religious, meaning that there would essentially be a creator deity giving us the things we need for life akin to the god of Abraham.

Part of me does want to side with these counterarguments as a natural skeptic. That said, some exciting news was revealed over the last month in that several building blocks for life originated in asteroids and came here from outer space (4). These specific compounds are niacin (as made famous by your local pharmacy’s vitamin section) and uracil, one of the key bases for RNA. Couple this with the fact that it has long since been accepted that Earth’s water came from asteroids and comets as well and we might have a new take on the “Zoo Hypothesis” (5). 

Perhaps these extraterrestrial species either sent these compounds to our universe or directly guided these already existing compounds at early forming planets, including Venus and Mars. They may have wanted to see which planets would form life if these elements were present and which wouldn’t. In this case, it would be less like a creator deity and more like a 6th grade science project trying to see if mold will grow on various surfaces provided certain starting positions. Heck, maybe this is some alien’s 6th grade science project left unchecked for billions of years.

At its core, we as humans do crave some type of closure to the Fermi Paradox (hence my tinfoil hat theory). None of us want to be alone in life, both in our daily lives as well as life itself. Maybe we’ll never come to solve the Fermi Paradox, or at least in my lifetime or in the lifetime of anyone I know. That might be a good thing after all. We all get to avoid doing our best Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith impressions from Independence Day (leave the aliens, take the cigars). If that is the case, then we get to inhabit our corner of the universe peacefully, at least for the time being.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qD2VzjBwI 
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_hypothesis
(4) https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/asteroid-discovery-suggests-ingredients-life-earth-came-space-2023-03-21/
(5) https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/water-origins/