Scientists reveal their eerie theories as to why aliens haven't contacted Earth yet
Scientists say there is a '100 per cent chance' of life somewhere beyond planet Earth.
While the idea's exciting that we could share our universe with another species - potentially as intelligent as ourselves - why is it taking so long to communicate?
One theory is due to the 'Dark Forest Hypothesis.'
This theory suggests that civilisations stay silent and hidden to survive, with weapons at the ready, much like a tactic used in The Hunger Games trials.
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Professor Frederick Walter, a galactic astronomer from Stony Brook University said: 'You have no idea if other civilisations are friendly or hostile and remember, you're the new kid on the block.
'They've been around for thousands of millions of years and are probably much more advanced, you don't know what to expect so the safest thing is to remain silent.'
Maybe there are powerful civilisations out there, watching us silently, waiting for us to make the first move.
Another explanation for the Fermi Paradox comes from a 2022 paper suggesting that humanity might simply be uninteresting to aliens. And they're in fact looking for signs of higher intelligence beyond our beings.
If not boring, our behaviour and history paint a bleak picture of what the extra-terrestrial beings are up against.
In their eyes, our planet has succumbed to the devastations of ongoing wars, pollution and destruction.
'If [alien life] exists it may have found us by now and discovered that humans are dangerous, violent and ceaselessly engage in endless bloody conflicts and war,' explained Dr. Gordon Gallup, a biopsychologist at the University of Albany, in the Journal of Astrobiology.
Alternatively, the 'Great Filter' theory proposes that we might have already missed the chance for any interaction.
According to the theory, civilisations tend to wipe themselves out before reaching out. And we could very well be on the tightrope ourselves as technology like AI advances and the possibility of human extinction intensifies.
But hey, maybe we're just impatient!
Compared to the universe's 14 billion years, humanity is but a blip. So, it might just be too soon to tell.
However, the final and most 'simplest answer' to this head-scratching debate is simply that no one else is out there. Disappointing, I know.
It ties back to the Drake Equation, a formula proposed in 1961 by Frank Drake used to estimate the number of communicative civilisations in the Milky Way.
It calculated that the number could be anywhere from 'zero to millions,' so not much to go on.
The professor points out that even if intelligent populations do exist, however, there's no real reason form them to spark a conversation with us as far as we know.
But it would be a dull answer to an age-old questions.