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Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Speculations on the Fermi Paradox (Part 2)

© Christopher B. Jones

Oh, you get me ready in your flying disc, baby. Why don't we go set down on the Earth? Take shelter on the...

Oh, sorry about that, I didn't know you were listening. It looks like it's time to continue our discussion on the Fermi Paradox, so I'd better stop singing.

Last time we met we broke down the Paradox into three general solutions: 1) There is no one out there; 2) There is someone out there, but they have no interest in space travel and contacting others, or they conceal themselves for ethical reasons; and 3) When a civilization reaches a certain level of technological development it destroys itself in a terrible war. We discussed the first possibility in Part 1, and this time we will set out to tackle the second.

This second solution is much more interesting, and though we have singled out lack of interest and concealment, there is really a lot more to it. In all we'll be covering six possibilities, three in this installment and three in the next. In this article we will consider:

1) Space travel is too costly.
2) Lack of interest in exploration.
3) Not enough stamina.

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