SETI and the Fermi Paradox: Is ET Out There?

The debate is an old one, but many people do believe that there is some form of life beyond the earth. Scientists have even recently found the amino acid glycine on a meteor, a chemical building block of proteins and life itself. Astronomers are also continually on the lookout for water out there in space, since H2O is a requirement for life, at least as we know it. But finding life in outer space (something that looks rather promising), and finding intelligent extraterrestrials are two very different things.

SETI and the Search for ET

The SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to exploring, understanding and explaining the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe; a bunch of scientists looking for ET by analyzing radio telescope data for extraterrestrial signals.

SETI@home, was launched in 1999; a project that allows the public to help with the number crunching of SETIs massive amount of radio telescope data. But have they found anything yet? Not much.

In 1977, Dr. Jerry R. Ehman, detected what was later dubbed "The Wow! Signal", a strong narrowband radio signal that was potentially non-terrestrial in origin, that caused Ehman to write "Wow!" on the computer printout of the data. But since initially being detected, The Wow Signal has not been found again.

Naysayers and the Fermi paradox

In the 1950s, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked his Los Alamos colleagues "Where is everybody?" Meaning that, if there is intelligent extraterrestrial life, you'd think we'd have heard from them by now.

In more scientific lingo, the Fermi Paradox states:

Because the universe is infinite, one would be inclined to believe that there is intelligent life beyond earth. However, no matter how logical this belief is, it is inconsistent with our lack evidence to support it. So, either the initial assumption is incorrect and technologically advanced intelligent life is rarer than we think, our current observations are incomplete and we have not detected them yet, or our search methodologies are flawed (i.e we aren't looking for the right kind of evidence).

Not Everyone Is a Fan of Fermi

SETI and the Fermi Paradox were recently discussed on National Public Radio's Diane Rehm Show "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life", August 20th 2009. The guests interviewed included. Alan Boss, research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Eric Korpela, SETI@home Project Scientist and Research Astronomer; Jill Tarter, Director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute's Center for SETI Research; and Jon Jenkins, Principal Investigator for the SETI Institute at NASA Ames Research Center.

During the interview, Dr. Tarter (the researcher who Jodi Foster's character in Contact was largely based on) discussed the Fermi Paradox and voiced her disagreement, saying how can we conclude that intelligent extraterrestrials aren't out there, since "we've hardly begun to look?" She compared our to-date search for ET to the act of dipping an 8 oz. glass into the ocean to sample aquatic life.

In summary, all we can do for now is keep looking. As the X-files assured us, "The truth is out there."