What if someone told you that your success is an outcome of your luck? Is that enough for you to lash out and explain how your hard work and dedication have gotten you to the position where you are right now? What if I told you that your success is indeed a product of two contradictions? So why is the nature of your success contradictory? Before you could understand that, let's take a couple of minutes to get to know these contradictions. Contradiction 1: Your belief that it's your hard work and countless sleepless nights that have abled you to climb that success ladder and stand at the top. But, on the other hand, Contradiction 2: Your awareness that Contradiction 1 is a lie and your luck has played an important role in getting you where you are. This antithetical concept is the Success Paradox. But why does your success require to be paradoxical? The truth is, it doesn't. But it's the best approach that one should take to remain in touch with reality. It is human natu...
Our universe is infinite... so we can't talk about it in quantitative terms. To quantify it, let's take a look around and observe our observable universe which has a diameter of around 93.016 billion light-years. Inside this diameter, as per the New Horizons space probe, there are at least 100 billion galaxies. "Billion" can often be overlooked because of our inability to imagine the number of zeroes that it encompasses.
100 Billion = 100,000,000,000
Inside these 100 billion galaxies, there are almost one billion trillion stars.
1 Billion Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Even if one percent of these stars are like our sun, there are still 10 Million Trillion sun-like stars;
10 Million Trillion = 10,000,000,000,000,000,000
And if 1% of them have an Earth-like planet revolving around them then there are almost 100,000 trillion planets in the observable universe which, theoretically speaking, could give birth and sustain LIFE!
100,000 Trillion = 100,000,000,000,000,000
Even if only 0.01% of these life-supporting planets develop intelligent life which could harvest their intelligence to travel in the vast space, there would be a quadrillion planets from where intelligent alien life could emerge.
1 Quadrillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000
So, where are the aliens?
If there are so many life-supporting planets in the universe and the cosmic ingredients of life itself are abundant, then why there is no evidence of extraterrestrial life when we look beyond our little blue cosmic marble?
Welcome to the Fermi Paradox!
Space is infinite, life-supporting planets are (in theory) not hard to find, the universe is 13.8 billion years old and humanity reached the moon in the last 50 years. So, why is alien life hard to find? This is the Fermi Paradox! Are we really alone in this neverending universe?
ORBC (One Random Brain Cell): I really don't want to be the bearer of any news to you but, I highly doubt it. We are not that special. There must be someone else in the universe as well.
Me: 
We can't get anywhere on this planet without encountering traffic on the roads. From point A to point B, there are always a thousand other vehicles in between. So if life is such a common occurrence in the universe, shouldn't our universe be stuck with a lightyear long cosmic traffic jam? But apparently, that is not the case! So, where the hell is everybody? Do they even exist?
ORBC: Rather than thinking about their inexistence, have you thought about a reason for their invisibility?
Me: Wait a second, are you talking about a workaround? A way to break this paradox?
ORBC: What about the rapid expansion of space?
Solution #1: The space around us is expanding at such a phenomenal rate that it is beyond impossible for us to visit or even see something that is beyond our observable universe. The universe is much bigger. If an intelligent life forms outside our sphere of observance, it would be impossible for us to communicate, reach, and visit such an alien life. For all our intents and purposes, it would seem like we are alone in the universe. Even if we talk about our observable universe, the galaxies inside it are receding away from us at such a pace that it will be only our local group of galaxies that we will be able to observe in the future. That represents maybe 0.1% of the total universe which means that life could form in the 99.9% of the remaining universe and we won't be able to witness it, ever!
-But the universe is so big that even 0.1% of it amounts to billions of stars and several hundreds of billions of planets. Surely, we could encounter an intelligent life inside our local cluster of galaxies. Right? So why don't we see any sign of alien life inside the local cluster itself?
Solution #2: The Great Filter! Imagine if there was a cosmic cycle of birth and destruction of life inside the universe? Life emerges on a new planet and acquires intelligence as well. It also reaches new heights and starts travelling to outer space. But, at some certain point, it becomes so advanced that such advancement triggers their own doom. What if every civilization that is born goes through this inevitable cycle of doom which becomes the reason for their annihilation. And that is why we don't see any alien life around us.
-Still, we should see some evidence of a forgotten civilization. Look at us, we are around for a few hundred thousand years and we have filled our skies with space debris.
Solution #3: Maybe, there is some ancient, super-advanced civilization that keeps an eye on developing life forms and obliterates them once they reach a certain point in their development, and thereby, control the entire universe.
-But where is the evidence of their existence? If such a super-advanced civilization does exist, shouldn't we be able to see them?
Solution #4: Maybe we are looking for something which isn't evidence in the first place. Think about it, what if there was an important letter that was supposed to be delivered to you and you constantly check the mailbox outside your home but don't find anything, not because the letter hasn't been sent, but because it was sent to your inbox via an email. You kept checking your physical mailbox and thought that the letter didn't arrive while it was in your email's inbox the whole time. What if a super-advanced civilization travels through space via wormholes and we are looking for an alien rocket to prove their existence?
There are countless other ways to work around the Fermi Paradox but solution #4 is my favourite one. It not only breaks the paradox but also provides us with a useful insight into the idea that we are an insignificant species on the grand scale of the universe. Our advancements and developments are indeed astonishing but on the timescale of the cosmos, they all mean nothing. We are a civilization trying to find bacteria with naked eyes. Where we pride ourselves in our ability to conceptualize the existence of a bacterium, we are also ill-equipped to witness it in reality. Maybe a bacterium also thinks about the universe around it and giant beings lurking around everywhere but it is not equipped with a pair of eyes to witness their omnipresence and maybe we are the cosmic equivalent of that bacterium.
Maybe our focus shouldn't be on finding new evidence for extraterrestrial life but on new ways to look for the evidence of such a life. Our understanding of the universe is dwarfed by its incomprehensible expanse. Human timescale is ridiculed by the cosmic clock. We try to fit the knowledge of the cosmos in our tiny little minds like a madman trying to fit the sun in the palm of his hand. But that's what makes us special... we find a way to look at that bacterium, we find a way to reach the moon, and we find a way to capture the solar energy as well. We... find a way. And till we find a way to get a concrete answer to the Fermi Paradox, keep reading the NotionWave blog and listen to the NotionWavePodcast.
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Book Blurb:-
He is dead! And that's where the story begins. With the help of a soul reaper named Walden, he embarks on a journey to explore hell, heaven and much more and to uncover the mysteries revolving around his birth and an uncanny demise. In search of the purpose of his existence, a destruction mongering nightmare is unleashed from the past. What does it want? Is there an end to this nightmare? Will Darren be able to define a purpose for his existence? Dive into a world where death is just another beginning and find out. Everything and Darren Grimes! Mysteries of the Cosmic Consciousness, Death and the Afterlife.
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