Page 1 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May/June 2022 Edition

THE

‘X’ CHRONICLES NEWSPAPER

Where Fact Is Fiction and Fiction Is Reality - Published Since 1990

Vol. 33, No. 5/6 ISSN 1499-8599 REL-MAR McConnell Media Company Publication - Digital Version May/June 2022

There Used To Be

ALIENS

In Our Galaxy,

But They Killed

Themselves Off

There Used to Be Aliens in like a Dyson sphere, is likely to be peering back they simply won’t have the means yet. Too old,
at us. and they could be stripped of technology in a
Our Galaxy, but They post-apocalyptic burnout.
Why aren’t they sending telescope satellites
Killed Themselves Off through our part of space? And how can it be They could even be extinct. In fact, the research

that out of all the planets and systems we’ve includes parameters for extinction and the idea
peeked into so far, we’ve seen nothing? of “self annihilation,” a probability that could be
ETs have a thing for self-
extraordinarily high.
annihilation. There are as many individual theories as there
are theorists, and these run a huge gamut. “Since we cannot preclude the high possibility
by Caroline Delbert of annihilation, [this result] suggests that most
“The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is of the potential complex life within the Galaxy
directly related to habitability and a galactic may still be very young,” the scientists explain.
habitable zone (GHZ); where habitable planets That means there could be a proliferation, but
are located and where potential life are most it’s of other civilizations that can’t push out into
In a 2020 study, researchers suggest the answer
to the Fermi paradox could be pretty bleak: likely to form,” the new study's researchers the galaxy yet—just like us.
(three Caltech physicists and one high school
Maybe all the intelligent civilizations have
student), write: What’s the point of research like this? It’s fair to
annihilated themselves. Jeez, 2020, that’s a little
ask, the same way it’s fair to ask questions about
on the nose.
“Overall, previous studies of habitability projects like SETI, the Search for Extra
This is the Fermi paradox stated at its most and the likelihood of intelligent life have Terrestrial Intelligence, in the first place.
provided many valuable insights; however, the
succinct: The universe is unfathomably gigantic,
precise propensity of galactic intelligent life to But these researchers have a clear goal, which is
but so far, we’ve never seen any sign that there’s
emerge has not yet been explored with spatial to place a touchstone for others who want to
intelligent life anywhere else.
and temporal analysis, nor has any research continue to explore the Fermi paradox. They
We’ve never observed an extraterrestrial living explicitly estimated an age distribution for explain:
potential life within the Galaxy.”
thing, or uncovered any evidence for extinct
“The exact number of the intelligent life
ones. As we peer further out into our corner of
These researchers wanted to add nuance to the estimated here is not the focus of our work.
the universe using more and more powerful
discussion by increasing the depth of their [R]ather, it is instead the development of a
telescopes, for example, people continue to hold
out hope that we’ll find evidence of a analysis, and they wanted to gauge how statistical, comprehensive galactic picture
relatively “old” any alien civilizations are likely tracing the potential growth propensity of
civilization, Dyson sphere, or anything just
to be. This is a critical factor in whether or not a intelligent life over a course of ~20 billion
around the next corner.
civilization can even travel in space or put out years.”
intergalactic feelers, because they can only do
But there’s a problem with that line of thinking.
A civilization that we’d see from this far away, that from a key “sweet spot.” Indeed, we don’t know what’s hiding around the
next intergalactic corner. []
let alone one that could have built something
Too young, and, like us before very recently,