The great silence : the science and philosophy of Fermi's paradox

__The Great Silence__explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question "Where is everybody?" In many respects, Fermi's paradox is the richest and the most challenging problem for the entire field of astrobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) studies.This book shows how Fermi's paradox is intricately connected with many fields of learning, technology, arts, and even everyday life. It aims to establish the strongest possible version of the problem, to dispel many related confusions, obfuscations, and prejudices, as well as to offer a novel point of entry to the many solutions proposed in existing literature. 'Cirkovi? argues that any evolutionary worldview cannot avoid resolving the Great Silence problem in one guise or another. The Great Silence explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question "Where is everybody?" In many respects, Fermi's paradox is the richest and the most challenging problem for the entire field of astrobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) studies. This book shows how Fermi's paradox is intricately connected with many fields of learning, technology, arts, and even everyday life. It aims to establish the strongest possible version of the problem, to dispel many related confusions, obfuscations, and prejudices, as well as to offer a novel point of entry to the many solutions proposed in existing literature. Milan Cirkovic argues that any evolutionary worldview cannot avoid resolving the Great Silence problem in one guise or another. Introduction: the many faces of Fermi's paradox -- 'What's past is prologue': cosmological and astrophysical background -- Speaking prose: realism, naturalism, Copernicanism, non-exclusivity -- L'Année Dernière à Marienbad: solipsist solutions -- Terra nostra: 'Rare Earth' and related solutions -- At The Mountains of Madness: neocatastrophic solutions -- The Cities of The Red Night: logistic solutions -- The Tournament: how to rate solutions and avoid exclusivity -- The last challenge for Copernicanism?;Researchers believe that the universe is vast enough that life has evolved and become technological many times, - yet we have seen no trace of extraterrestrial intelligence. This conundrum, known as the Fermi paradox, is the deepest mystery in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Put simply, where is everybody?