Humans started the extraterrestrial civilization search program shortly after leaving the earth. As early as 1977, scientists launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 into space, and they all carried a record of human information CD with earth information and coordinates.
The goal of the Voyager is to advance outside the solar system, hoping to be captured by alien civilizations after exiting the solar system. In this way, alien civilizations can learn about the existence of human beings through the information left on the disc, and come to Earth to communicate with humans. In addition, for nearly half a century, scientists have repeatedly sent radio signals to the depths of the universe, hoping to get a response from alien civilizations.
But now more than half a century has passed, not to mention alien civilization, it is the simplest alien primitive life, and we have not discovered the slightest. As a result, many people have doubts about the existence of alien civilization. In many people’s eyes, life on earth and the existence of human beings are actually the best evidence for the existence of alien civilization.
Scientists have recognized the origin of life on earth through the theory of evolution, and also the origin of human beings. So is the origin of life on earth complicated? In fact, it is not complicated at all from the perspective of nature. After the formation of the earth’s ecosystem 4 billion years ago, organic matter began to evolve in the hot springs of the ocean to form early simple life.
These simple early lives continue to evolve under suitable environments, with more and more types of life and more and more complex genetic sequences. After billions of years of evolution, human ancestors were finally born. Therefore, in a sense, the most ancient ancestors of mankind are these early simple lives, and these simple lives evolved from the most basic organic matter.
This model of the origin of life on the earth is also adapted to other ecological planets in the universe. So are there many terrestrial planets like the Earth in the universe? The answer is too many to count. Take the Milky Way, which is about 150,000 light-years in diameter, with hundreds of billions of stars, and the number of terrestrial planets may exceed tens of billions. Even if there is a small probability that an ecological planet like the earth will be born, there should be a very large number of terrestrial planets that are very similar to the earth in the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is just a particle of dust in the observable universe for humans. In the entire observable universe, there are about trillions of galaxies like the Milky Way. The current observable universe of mankind is only the tip of the iceberg of the vast universe. It can be seen that there are also too many ecological planets in the universe that are very similar to the earth.
The origins of primitive life have similarities. Ecosystems like the earth can give birth to early primitive life, so there is a high probability that primitive life will also be born on other ecological planets. Although the birth of primitive life does not necessarily mean that it will be able to evolve into intelligent life, even if it is a small probability that intelligent life will be born, the number of intelligent civilizations in the universe should be very large.
The universe has a history of 13.8 billion years, and civilizations were born at different times. Some civilizations may be born tens of thousands of years earlier than humans, millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years. If these civilizations exist, there is a high probability that they are already powerful interstellar civilizations, and it shouldn’t be difficult to shuttle between galaxies. If this is the case, then the universe should be very lively, and there should be high-level civilizations everywhere.
But why can’t we find one of them? I believe that many friends are also very puzzled by Fermi’s paradox. In theory, there should be a lot of advanced civilizations in the universe, and the universe should be very lively, but the real situation we observe is that the universe is very dead.
Why did the universe, which should have been very lively, become deadly silent? In this regard, scientists have also put forward a variety of conjectures, one of which makes people feel scared and confused. This conjecture is that humans may be the only intelligent civilization in the universe. If this conjecture is correct, what is the point of mankind’s exploration of the universe? Some people think that since human beings are the only intelligent civilization in the universe, it is meaningless for us to explore the universe. It is better to maintain the status quo.
If there is only one intelligent civilization in the universe, can we give up exploring the universe? Is it really meaningless to explore the universe? If you think this way, you are very wrong. People with this kind of thinking actually think that human beings are exploring the universe for the purpose of exploring extraterrestrial civilization. But in fact, there are too many mysteries in the universe, too many mysterious things exist, and alien civilization is just a goal on the road of human exploration.
The reason why we are now curious about alien civilization and want to explore with all our strength is that we have to determine whether human beings are alone in the universe. If one day in the future, we truly discover alien civilization, then the mysterious veil of alien civilization will also be lifted. At that time, human beings will not be so interested in the exploration of alien civilization.
In fact, alien civilization is only a small area of exploration on the way humans explore the universe. The really important direction of exploration is to explore the various rules of the universe, such as the origin of the universe, why the universe expands, and whether the universe has boundaries. These are the meanings of mankind’s real exploration of the universe. Therefore, even if mankind is the only intelligent civilization in the universe, the significance of our exploration of the universe will be even greater.
Because if there are a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the universe, or even some advanced civilizations that are much stronger than humans, then the pace of human exploration of the universe may have shortcuts in the future. For example, we have contact with an advanced civilization, and advanced civilizations. Civilizations will share some of their exploration information about the universe with mankind.
At that time, we can achieve a qualitative understanding of the universe without any effort, and we can also make a qualitative increase in the strength of human civilization. But if there is only one civilization in the universe, there will be no shortcuts to our exploration of the universe. We can only proceed step by step and move forward step by step. But this road is not easy to follow. To reach the end, we need to make more efforts. It is possible that until the day when human civilization ends, we will not be able to truly understand the universe.
It can be seen from this that we still hope that there will be an extraterrestrial civilization in the universe, because then when human beings become an interstellar civilization, we will not be alone in the universe. More importantly, by contacting and communicating with different civilizations, we can learn from each other’s strengths, speed up our understanding of the universe, and speed up the improvement of the strength of human civilization.
If we come into contact with an advanced civilization that has been developed for hundreds of millions of years, it may make human beings ascend to the sky in one step, which may save humans hundreds of thousands of years of development time. Of course, the existence of alien civilizations may also bring crises to mankind. Hawking has warned humans not to make contact with alien civilizations more than once. The reason is that human beings are too weak. Once they encounter a powerful alien civilization, It may lead to the end of human civilization.
Of course, the progress of civilization cannot be stopped, and whether or not an alien civilization exists is not determined by us. Only human beings continue to develop science and technology. When the power of science and technology is strong and we have the ability to explore other galaxies, we can discover some clues of alien civilization. Perhaps when we truly step out of the solar system, we will find a prosperous alien civilization.