Fermi paradox

("Where is everybody" redirects here. For the Twilight Zone episode, see Where Is Everybody? For the television production company, see Where's Everybody.) The Fermi paradox or Fermi's paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates, e.g. those given by the Drake equation, for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. The basic points of the argument, made by physicists Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) and Michael H. Hart (born 1932), are:

Fermi paradox

("Where is everybody" redirects here. For the Twilight Zone episode, see Where Is Everybody? For the television production company, see Where's Everybody.) The Fermi paradox or Fermi's paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates, e.g. those given by the Drake equation, for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. The basic points of the argument, made by physicists Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) and Michael H. Hart (born 1932), are: