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The Fermi Paradox ("by now this should be a Star Wars galaxy with ETs communicating and visiting all the time, but instead there is silence") is deepened by our rapid advances in space robotics tech, putting us just a few decades away from doing what ET doesn't seem to be doing.
Our own rapid growth of technology deepens the Fermi Paradox in two ways. First, it shows that it isn't so hard to create self replicating robotic spacecraft that can spread thru the ENTIRE galaxy in about 10 million years, a mere blink of the eye. So where are they? Second.../2
3/ Second, it shows we are just decades away from escaping the limits of a single planet, diversifying our cosmic habitat. This will reduce risk of extinction from things like asteroid impact or nuclear war. This undermines a possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox.
4/ The idea that all civilizations in the galaxy eventually go extinct before they can spread to the stars is called The Great Filter. It is always a favorite (but pessimistic) answer to the FP. I don't believe it. We're too close to escaping that, so ETs could escape it, too.
5/ Any solution to the FP needs to be a universal solution. It has to be something that inevitably happens to EVERY civilization in the galaxy. Because if even one civilization is an exception, then that one civilization should have easily colonized the entire galaxy by now.
6/ We might say, maybe they just didn't WANT to colonize the galaxy. But we have to ask if that's a universal explanation. If even one civilization across the galaxy wanted to colonize the stars, they could easily be here by now. Is "not wanting to" a universal fact of nature?
7/ Those are the kinds of answers that are needed to solve the FP. In fact, one researcher recently showed how robotic tech makes it possible for a single civilization to colonize every galaxy in the visible universe. So we need universal answers, or they are not answers at all.
8/ One favorite type of answer is the idea that there are advanced civilizations out there actively enforcing this Great Silence on each other. This might be a universal answer, if it is possible to prevent EVERY civilization from becoming the exception that breaks the silence.
9/ This new paper studies a version of that answer. It asks whether an /unintended/ cosmic enforcer may have arisen. Maybe the self replicating robots suffer mutations causing some of them to become predators eating the rest. (You gotta love it!) So, is this a universal answer?
10/10 The new study says it is not. Even if predator robots inevitably arise somewhere in the galaxy, they won't be able to shut down the cosmic expansion of technology well enough to create such deep silence in the galaxy. So the Fermi Paradox lives on!
