Could we be the only advanced technological civilization in our Galaxy
Abstract
The question of the uniqueness of an advanced technological civilization to the earth is considered. The total number of technological civilizations in the Galaxy is usually calculated by the Drake-Sagan formula, which yields the result of about one billion civilizations. Considerations of the colonization of space lead to the conclusion that the entire Galaxy would be colonized in the relatively short time of a few million years and be teeming with civilizations, if the Drake-Sagan formula were correct. If so, the absence of evidence of extraterrestrials on our planet can be explained by their desire to remain hidden, most likely in the asteroid belt. If on the other hand we are one of the few advanced technological civilizations in the Galaxy, it is most likely that the probabilities of there existing planets where life evolved and of the evolution of intelligence from living beings, which requires the evolution of an oxidizing atmosphere from a reducing one, have been overestimated.
- Publication:
-
Origin of Life
- Pub Date:
- 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978orli.meet..583P
- Keywords:
-
- Biological Evolution;
- Extraterrestrial Intelligence;
- Extraterrestrial Life;
- Milky Way Galaxy;
- Asteroids;
- Exobiology;
- Space Colonies;
- Space Sciences (General)