Intelligent aliens and extraterrestrial life -- the two terms are not mutually inclusion and could be the answer to why we humans here on lonely outpost planet Earth (we're a bit out toward the galactic rim, ya know) haven't found intelligent extraterrestrial life in all the years of searching for it. One scientist believes that speculative theories will have to suffice until some concrete proof comes along, because at present the Fermi Paradox holds sway in any debate about the subject.
Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University Robert Scherer, writing for The Conversation June 15, noted that for all our imaginative forays in science fiction and our speculative musings in actual scientific specializations, humans have yet to find authentic proof that aliens exist and/or can or have produced a technological civilization at any level. (Of course, UFO enthusiasts will argue till they're grey in the face that aliens have been here an uncounted number of times, that the alien intelligences that could produce the ability to travel to Earth is proof of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and conspiracy theorists will argue that the truth is in all the redacted files of the governments of Earth. And then there is the Ancient Alien theorists who believe that humanity may be either the progeny of extraterrestrials and/or that aliens have perhaps helped guide the progress of humans through the ages.) Drawing upon the mathematical probabilities of alien life and intelligence (via Drake's Equation) and factoring in other probabilities like habitable planets in the universe and such, Scherer noted that there appears to be plenty of evidence to support the idea that life should not be relegated to just one world in a tiny galaxy in the universe. In fact, the universe should be quite stocked with a multitude of life forms. But then, without proof that actual life exists elsewhere other than Earth, it just might not.
No, it doesn't rule the debate. The so-called "Fermi Paradox" hinges upon two big things: One, that ETs would unambiguously choose to make their presence known to all on Earth, and two, that terrestrial governing bodies would openly disclose an ET presence on, or, off Earth. To read more of this stale baloney, click here.