First, it’s not a paradox. A paradox goes something like this: {X|x = ~x}. That’s not what Fermi is proposing.
If you’re not familiar with Fermi’s paradox, here’s Wikipedia’s summation:
“The Fermi paradox is a conflict between the argument that scale and probability seem to favor intelligent life being common in the universe, and the total lack of evidence of intelligent life having ever arisen anywhere other than on Earth.”
I think it’s time to put the Fermi paradox to rest. When it’s analyzed one should realize it’s actually two thoughts: whether extraterrestrial life exists, and whether aliens (if they exist) would contact Earth, or would be discoverable by us.
This is not a paradox, it’s an inspiration note for aspiring science fiction writers to improvise upon.
The second part is based on a faulty assumption. An assumption (I think) that reflects the time of the Manhattan project, when Fermi first proposed his paradox. The assumption is the fantasy there could be space travel, which would be (presumably) how aliens would contact Earth — or we would contact them. Even long range telescopic observation of alien civilization is allowed within the premise.
Whether or not there is life elsewhere, the little we know now about space travel, the more it’s obvious that traveling through space is utterly antithetical to biological life.
One should never say that humanity will never be able to achieve space travel, but space travel seems as illogical as the assumption the Fermi paradox rests on. There is the problem of protecting biological life during space travel, and there is also the problem of time and distance.
The distances involved in interstellar space are simply unimaginable. The time that it takes light to travel those distances precludes any possible mortal extraterrestrial travel to contact earth or terrestrial mortals be able to travel the distance necessary to contact extraterrestrial civilization, return, and thereby settle the Fermi paradox.
There is also the issue of the logical confusion an infinite universe, or near infinite universe, introduces into the argument. Part of the premise is that there must be excellent odds of life and intelligent life to evolve within the universe, simply because the size and scale of the universe favors near infinitesimal odds. The problem with that idea is the scale and size of the universe may make it impossible for two forms of life, even if they independently emerge, to develop and discover each other. After all, they’re only potentially separated by millions of light years and billions of years.
It’s as equally as unlikely that we can detect any form of life within the space time frame we exist within. Earth is at the outside of the galaxy, as far as you could possibly imagine from the centre of any density of stars that might a) harbor life, b) allow those life forms to find, contact and communicate with each other.
Simply put the Fermi paradox isn’t a paradox, it’s not possible. The time scale involved in any travel to Earth almost certainly precludes it, and that’s if an extraterrestrial race could find Earth. Imagine the time required to simply discover the existence of the Earth, let alone travel to it. The same for discovering evidence of extraterrestrial life.
If other alien races were to contact the Earth, they would have to be a near immortal extraterrestrial race evolved into beings of light for whom there is no meaning of time or distance. But if we’re talking about mortal biological lifeforms, there cannot be extraterrestrial space travel. At least not as we would imagine it. And that would be only one of the hurdles we would have to clear in order to resolve Fermi’s ‘paradox’.