[RightWhale]

That's how it looks. Looks like we are alone with our clash of civilizations. Whoever wins this one wins not just earth but the entire galaxy.

[RightWhale]

bump of possible interest

[wny]

There were other civilizations. But one-by-one, their liberals destroyed them.

[mlo]

I doubt a galactic empire could exist due to the problems of communication and transport accross such huge distances. As to where everyone is, how do we know they aren't next door? All we can really say is we don't see them here, right now. Would it really be necessary for aliens to be visiting us right now if they exist at all? This seems like a leap to me.

[Just another Joe]

Another possibility could be that at certain points in their advancement civilizations either revert or go on farther to a type of being that we would not recognize yet.
Basically a civilization would revert to savagery or kill themselves off, or might advance to a form not recognizable by less sophisticated civilizations.
Just a thought.

[headsonpikes]

I'm still trying to determine if there is intelligent life on Earth. ;^)

[Lazamataz]

So what Fermi immediately realized was that the aliens have had more than enough time to pepper the Galaxy with their presence. But looking around, he didn't see any clear indication that they're out and about. This prompted Fermi to ask what was (to him) an obvious question: "where is everybody?"

Cigarettes killed them all.

[Gumlegs]

Maybe the aliens got a good look at us and started hiding.

[adx]

Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy. Within ten million years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire.

Their race better have a VERY long lifespan then. Why build an interstellar "empire" if you can't live long enough to enjoy it or even administer it? A race could colonize other systems, but since communications and travel are limited by the speed of light at best, political organization of an interstellar "empire" would be very hard or outright impossible. Basically, each system would be its own independent political entity and cultural "petri dish" evolving independently from fellow members of their species in other systems.

Perhaps therin lies the best hope for freedom there is. Just pick up and move to where nobody else is willing to follow you. I don't know how easy it'd be to do so, since there's a lot of variables (access to transport, willingness to leave the homeworld, availability of habitable planets, terraforming, etc.).

Hell, mabye every culture eventually evolves Democrats to muck things up?

[jpl]

Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy.

Yeah, whatever. No sane person with even a rudimentary knowledge of physics, much less an expert, could possibly believe something this preposterous.

[MarketR]

Could it be that because we are waaaaaay out on the end of an inconsequential arm of our home galaxy, revolving around an ordinary star with no remarkable characteristics, save one, that we're here, it's just hard to find us?

I postulate, we just haven't been found yet!

[MWS]

Self bump for future read...

[null and void]

Taliban got 'em...

[#3Fan]

One is on the way. Nephilim: Here they come! :^)

[steve-b]

The simplest answer is that, to get to another star system you have to adapt to living in an "interstellar ark" -- and once you've done so it's easier to just take what you need from asteroids and comets than to re-adapt to living on planets.

For all we know, there could be thousands of old mining traces in our own Belt.

[OK]

Maybe our civilization is the only one living in an Oprah world where reaching out to other civilizations is thought to be beneficial. Civilizations tend to war with each other on Earth.

Another point is that maybe they just don't want us to know that they are there for their own reasons. Perhaps we are too primitive to be taken seriously.

Another point is that space travel might not be restricted to speeds that our limited science understands in 2001 AD.

[Dog Gone]

I postulate that no other civilization has been able to solve the problem of faster than light travel. The distances are huge and the challenges immense.

It doesn't do much good to colonize a new planet, only to discover that it has a strain of flu that is 100% fatal.

Civilizations also have a nasty tendency to self-destruct, and species have a tendency to go extinct rather quickly.

[malakhi]

"Earth: Mostly harmless"

[RLK]

Space travel is not as easy as conjectured. Traveling at the speed of light is too slow to get you anywhere and requires massive amounts of energy. The probability of contact with life forms on other solar systems or galaxies is small. If there are other civilizations, they have no reason to even believe we're here. At the speed of light, they haven't even received our 50s TV sitcoms yet.

[Don Myers]

"Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They?"

Well, don't look here. Beam me up, Scotty.

[Destructor]

Isn't it obvious? The aliens observed our civilation, and determined that as a species, humankind are basically a bunch of a******s! So, they decided to stay as far away from earth as possible,until we eventually destroy ourselves!!This brings to mind a good question: How do we know that we really know that we want to have contact with alien life forms? What if they turn out to be more savage than we humans!?!