Hundreds of years ago, after more than 10,000 years of development, mankind finally embarked on the road of science and technology. With the help of technology, we began to re-understand the starry sky beyond the earth. With the astronomical telescope, mankind’s exploration of the vast universe has officially kicked off.
Astronomical telescopes only allow mankind to have a preliminary understanding of the universe, and for mankind to have a newer understanding of the universe, it is still after mankind has truly stepped out of the earth. Only by truly breaking away from the shackles of the earth’s gravity and walking out of the earth, can we see the real vast universe.
Standing in space and on the earth are completely different threats. Observing the starry sky on the earth, we only see a dark and mysterious universe, and we have no other feelings. Walking out of the earth and standing in the starry sky, apart from seeing the dark and cold universe, we feel more lonely and afraid.
Standing in the starry sky and watching the universe, it is so quiet, there is no lively scene on the earth, and there is no breath of life. Walking out of the earth, mankind has also opened a new chapter in exploring the universe. This is a huge leap in human civilization.
If someone asks you, what is most interested in exploring the universe? Maybe more people will answer: look for alien civilizations. That’s right, whether there are extraterrestrial life in the vast universe, whether there is an intelligent civilization like human beings, is something that every human being wants to understand.
Before human beings walked out of the earth, scientists guessed that the universe should be very lively. There should be many traces of alien life on the planet and alien life. But after really walking out of the earth, what we see is a silent space. The universe is really too quiet, except for the little starlight from those stars, there is no sound from seeing any traces of life.
Such a scene surprised people. Is there no intelligent life like human beings in the universe? Is human beings the only one in the universe? In order to find this answer, scientists have continuously upgraded their technology and observation capabilities for more than half a century, and used a variety of methods to detect the starry sky, hoping to find traces of alien life.
But to our disappointment, we still haven’t found any life, even in the solar system, we haven’t found even the simplest alien microbes. Although scientists have speculated that there may be life on Mars, decades of exploration and research have also failed to find any life.
Although we have not discovered any extraterrestrial life in the past 50 years, after more than half a century of exploration and research, human understanding of the universe has continued to increase. The more we know about the universe, the more we will feel the insignificance of the earth and human beings, and at the same time we will increasingly believe that alien civilization exists.
I believe many friends know that the current observable universe of mankind is about 93 billion light years, and within this range, there are at least 2 trillion galaxies the size of the Milky Way, the number of stars is at least one trillion, and the number of planets is even greater. It is difficult to describe with numbers.
Even if there is a very small probability that planets similar to the earth’s environment will appear, the number of habitable planets is an astronomical number that is difficult to estimate. Given the huge scale of celestial bodies, how likely is it that humans are the only intelligent life? In fact, we can’t use how high it is, but how small it should be. With a huge base that cannot be described by numbers, the possibility that only humans exist in the universe is basically close to zero.
In other words, human beings cannot be the only intelligent life in the universe, and there must be other intelligent civilizations. Since there are alien civilizations in the universe, why have we not found any traces of alien civilizations in the universe? Where are they?
This kind of problem has baffled many scientists and has no clue about it. For this reason, Fermi also put forward the famous Fermi paradox. Human beings have “screamed” at the starry sky for more than half a century without any response. Is this normal? Maybe some friends will say, it’s normal, the vast universe is too far away, and it’s no surprise that humans’ “screams” cannot be responded to.
Is it really normal? If we study and analyze carefully, we will find that what seems normal is not normal at all. Yes, the scale of the universe is so large that we can’t imagine it. Even the scope of the 93 billion observable universe of human beings is probably just vast. The tip of the iceberg of the universe. The true scope of the universe may be much larger than this number.
The reason for saying this is that we need to look back at the age of the universe. According to the current Big Bang theory, the universe originated 13.8 billion years ago. According to the simulation experiment of the universe, the earliest stars were born 13.7 billion years ago. It took a long time for the universe to evolve into what it is now.
Early stars appeared 13.7 billion years ago, indicating that the universe stabilized earlier than we thought, and when the universe is stable, planets will appear when stars are born. Planets are the breeding grounds for life. With the continuous emergence of planets, planets of life will also appear. Life undergoes evolution and evolution, giving birth to intelligent life, developing civilization, and finally entering the age of technology and the age of starry sky.
Therefore, from the perspective of the age of the universe, in theory, many civilizations must have embarked on the path of interstellar colonization. After possessing the ability of interstellar navigation, you can leave many traces in the universe. It should have happened in common sense, but there is no trace in the real universe. This is a very abnormal thing.
What does it mean behind the abnormal? There may be an important thing about human survival-the big filter. In the 1990s, George Mason University professor Robin Hansen proposed the big filter theory based on Fermi’s paradox.
Robin Hansen believes that the rules of the universe are adapted to every planet, every galaxy, the solar system can give birth to life, so other similar galaxies can also be. No matter how life appears in these galaxies? They will all undergo an evolutionary process similar to that of human beings.
For example, the inorganic matter of the earth evolves into organic matter, and the organic matter evolves into single-celled life with the ability to replicate. Single-celled organisms evolve into complex multi-celled life, and multi-celled organisms evolve into brains or similar tissues capable of generating wisdom, and finally form Civilization, stepping into the age of science and technology, heading towards the stars, and beginning the path of interstellar colonization of the universe.
This process is linear and gradual. If we regard this process as a level-breaking game, then only after completing the current level can we enter another level and start another stage of the level-breaking task. Each level is equivalent to a big filter, and the life that has not passed the level will be eliminated and completely disappeared in the universe.
Robin Hansen believes that the reason why the universe we see is not lively but silent is because there is a “filter” under the rules of the universe, which traps most living things on their home planet. , His home galaxy cannot become a real interstellar civilization.
And in the entire process of this big filter, the difficulty of going through the level will change from easy to difficult, becoming more and more difficult, but this level from planetary civilization to interstellar civilization is an important watershed, and civilizations that can successfully break through the past are very rare. Perhaps more than 90% of the intelligent civilizations are stuck at this level, unable to cross, and finally disappear from the universe.
At present, mankind has initially stepped out of the earth and has the preliminary ability to explore the universe. However, from the perspective of the universe, human beings are still planetary civilizations, far away from real interstellar civilization. According to Calf’s civilization level classification standards, humans are now only level 0.7 civilization, not even the lowest level civilization. on.
To become a real interstellar civilization and to have the qualifications for interstellar colonization, you must at least reach the third level of civilization. Because the third-level civilization already has the initial space jumping ability, it can realize the initial super-light speed shuttle.
The “big filter” may block countless cosmic civilizations, none of them have crossed over to become real interstellar civilizations. Therefore, no traces of civilization can be seen in the universe. Such a result makes mankind feel scared and unacceptable. We must know that countless cosmic civilizations have not passed this test. As a member of many cosmic civilizations, how can human beings overcome this filter that has destroyed many civilizations?
Of course, the above is just a guess of scientists at present. What is the reason why human beings cannot discover alien civilization? More exploratory research is needed, perhaps mainly because human beings are relatively weak in science and technology. Even if there are traces of civilization, we can’t really discover them. Only when human science and technology are further advanced and have the ability to fly at sub-light speeds, there may be unexpected major discoveries.