Too primitive to perceive

Let’s be honest. We have thought about whether or not aliens exist out there in the universe at least once in our lives. There can be different opinions. They live but are not intelligent enough. They once existed but have died out. Or they simply don’t exist and that we are alone in this vast universe.

There is something called Fermi Paradox. Physicist Enrico Fermi once asked this question – “But where is everybody?” There are so many sun-like stars in our galaxy alone. Many have planets like our earth in habitable zones. Some stars like Sun must be billions of years older and would have developed life even before us. Even at a slow pace, those civilizations would have gotten intelligent enough and traveled through the galaxy in a million years. But we have no evidence they are out there or ever visited us.

I read this article where the author described very nicely the possible explanations of the Fermi Paradox.

One explanation had a possibility that made much sense to me.

Explanation Group 2: Type II and III intelligent civilizations are out there—and there are logical reasons why we might not have heard from them.

Possibility 9) Higher civilizations are here, all around us. But we’re too primitive to perceive them. Michio Kaku sums it up like this:

Let’s say we have an anthill in the middle of the forest. And right next to the anthill, they’re building a ten-lane super-highway. And the question is “Would the ants be able to understand what a ten-lane super-highway is? Would the ants be able to understand the technology and the intentions of the beings building the highway next to them?”

waitbutwhy.com

We cannot blame ourselves or our technology that is not picking up any signals from out there. It is simply that we cannot comprehend the scale at which those aliens are working and we are not smart to understand anything they might be trying to teach or tell us.

It’s so beyond us that even if they really wanted to enlighten us, it would be like trying to teach ants about the internet.

waitbutwhy.com

This is very much it. We are probably too small/irrelevant/primitive, whatever you want to call it to understand their intentions. Neither will we ever be able to explain to those ants what that 10-way highway will do and nor can those aliens explain to us how to use a Dyson Sphere around a star.

Simple yet crazy to think about.

I still think there are/were intelligent species who can be very similar to us. Whether or not we can find them is a different topic, but the above scenario binds them both into one.

1. Are there intelligent species out there?
2. If yes, are we too small/irrelevant/primitive to find them?
3. If not, are we intelligent enough to understand the difference between there being no aliens and not being able to find one?

The possibility will arise no matter what you will say. A yes will bring you to this possibility. A no will bring you back to this possibility.

Gif – The Longhairs

We can argue that it doesn’t matter if we can or cannot comprehend what aliens might be trying to tell or teach us. Why can’t they just show themselves? Humans cannot explain anything to ants and vice versa but we see each other. So even if aliens are in a similar situation like ants and humans, why we don’t see one another?

Maybe we are irrelevant and are trying to find aliens from a tiny village in a long-abandoned area. They were here and they tried to teach us. They failed, saw no benefits of working with us, and went away. It can be simple as that.

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I hope your mind wandered around a little while reading this. Tell me your thoughts if any and I wish you a great day ahead. 👋

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