Last week we looked at another reason that has been advanced, as to why we do not see extraterrestrials except at the movies. Science writer Matt Williams has been looking at the reasons (see the links below.) Last Saturday, we looked at the possibility that Earth is unusual in that it is a rocky planet whose intelligent inhabitants live on the surface. Many rocky planets and moons with icy surfaces may have interior oceans that harbor life.: In that case, intelligent life may not think of space exploration.
Another hypothesis that Williams has examined is the Percolation Theory Hypothesis, that there are limits imposed by the laws of physics as to what intelligent life forms can do by way of exploring the universe. We and the extraterrestrials haven’t found each other because we are all subject to those laws. Geoffrey A. Landis argued that in a 1993 paper, “The Fermi paradox: an approach based on percolation theory.” There, he said, “A model for interstellar colonization is proposed using the assumption that there is a maximum distance over which direct interstellar colonization is feasible. Due to the time lag involved in interstellar communications, it is assumed that an interstellar colony will rapidly develop a culture independent of the civilization that originally settled it.”
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