We all, every last one of us, often believe in things we consider to be obviously true, thus things we “know” to be true, but which may simply not be true. It’s what 20th-Century philosopher Ernst Cassirer, I believe, called “first impression knowledge” (although I’m happy to be corrected on this). William James coined a term which also applies—the sentiment of rationality. In other words, you accept something as true when it seems rational to you, or, better said, feels rational to you. As the term implies, this is an emotion and not true rationality and certainly not real knowledge.
A good and obvious example of this is an early Homo sapiens individual (you can fill in the gender) standing on an African savanna looking up at the sun
taking it for a supernatural entity that, obviously, rises in the East in the morning and goes to bed in the West for the evening. It is this individual’s first impression that the sun moves overhead, despite the truth that it does not. But he “knows” it to be true because he has observed it, therefore—as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has recently and now famously (soon infamously, I’ll bet) stated regarding specific trials and tribulations of a certain Mr. Trump—case closed.
Fortunately we Homo sapiens over time looked longer and deeper into the matter of the sun and came up with second, third, fourth, and onward, impressions of the orb, and a good deal of the truth about that fiery body is now known to us scientifically—that is, rationally and not just emotionally.
A current bit of first impression knowledge that strikes many people’s sentiment of rationality is the assertion that since the universe is so vast
(The radius of the observable universe is estimated to be about 46.5 billion light-years and its diameter about 93 billion light-years), and there are so many Galaxies
(Research released in 2016 revised the number of galaxies in the observable universe from a previous estimate of 200 billion to a suggested 2 trillion or more, containing more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth), and there may be 100 billion of stars in our galaxy alone
with potentially billions of planets that might support some form of life—obviously there must be other intelligent, technological, communicating, civilized life in our galaxy and it would be arrogant of us to assume otherwise.
Feels rational, doesn’t it?
But is it? For there is not one shred of evidence, no data at all, not even a hint out there that any Extra-Terrestrial Civilizations (ETCs) exist anywhere in the universe, let alone in our galaxy. And if any number of the possibly millions, maybe billions of ETCs are like us, sending out various electromagnetic signals and perhaps traveling in space and such, and since we have consciously been looking for such signals (admittedly not for long, but possibly long enough) why haven’t we pick any up? Or been visited (credibly, not UFOly) by them? This is known as the Fermi Paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi
who seems to have casually asked this question in 1950 causing not so casual consternation among people who think about such things.
Many of those people have tried to offer solutions to this paradox, and those possible solutions are well documented and commented on by physicist and astronomer Stephen Webb in his informative, detailed, wonderfully written If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life (2002, 2nd ed. 2015).
Sometime last year I became aware of Stephen Webb and his book by coming across his TED Talk on YouTube which he gave in April 2018.
It’s about a thirteen-minute talk that has now been viewed almost four million times. It’s a good, if brief, introduction to the ideas in If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY? But the book offers so much more, and I highly recommend it.
In his book, Webb objectively presents seventy-four of the seventy-five solutions to the Fermi Paradox in clear, conversational writing. Then, at the end of each section on a solution, he points out objections and weaknesses in each, calling on data not only from physics and astronomy but math, biology, geology, geography, and chemistry. Taking the reader far beyond first impression knowledge, Webb paints a picture of life in its various manifestations—simple, complex, adaptable, conscious, intelligent, technological. He does not do this using arcane—to non-scientists—language. The occasional, but necessary, use of math can be daunting for the mathematically illiterate, such as me, but glazing over of the eyes can get one though that. For the most part, though, Webb’s writing is not only readable but a comfortable, stimulating pleasure while many non-first impressions begin to open your mind. Especially to just how difficult it is in this cold universe for life to spark, to evolve from simple single-cell organisms into complexity, to survive, to thrive, not to mention to achieve sentient, intelligent, consciousness.
What your mind is opened to, then, as you finish the book, is the absolute wonder and strongly possible uniqueness of life, most particularly intelligent life, more specifically Homo sapiens intelligent life. No species self-loather is Webb in this world where many fellow humans make the knee-jerk reaction that our species are the greatest jerks on Earth, if not the universe.
This is all the more critical when you come to the seventy-fifth solution, which is Webb’s own, and so naturally subjective—but not by any means a first impression sentiment of rationality. Simply stated the solution may be that we have found no evidence of one or two or millions of ETCs (intelligent, technological and communicative) out there because—WE ARE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE.
Okay, stop shouting now. It is not case closed. But it is something every one of us should embrace as a possibility.
I was drawn to Webb and his TED talk and book because I have always had, admittedly, a sentiment of rationality that we may indeed be the only intelligent life in the universe. I have never discounted the possibility of the opposite, but the thought that we are alone has intrigued me. So much so that I gave this opinion to my fictional aliens, the protagonists in my novel Traveling in Space.
Of course, my aliens think they are the only intelligent life in the universe and, indeed, have named themselves Life. But then, while traveling in space in their colossal lifeship, they stumble upon us, Homo sapiens sapiens, on this pretty little planet. We are nowhere near as intelligent—or fundamentally mature—as the aliens, but they find us knowledgeable enough to want to learn more about us.
My novel is not a work of hard science fiction. Rather it is a satire somewhat in the tradition of Gulliver’s Travels. My aliens are but a representation of our possible future selves—if we gain more intelligence (or knowledge) and maturity, and don’t destroy ourselves first. A possibility that also must be seriously considered.
What I hope my novel points to and I believe Webb in his book does too—is that we may or may not be the only intelligent life in the universe, but it doesn’t really matter. For even if there are others out there, our galaxy—and indeed the universe—is so vast, and communication and travel within will be so difficult, that although we may someday see evidence of ETCs, we almost certainly may never meet them “face to face.” If this is to be the case that finally closes, then we are virtually alone in the universe.
What matters, then, whether we are alone or not, is to act as if we are. Not to be arrogant about it but to appreciate just how unique, singular, and thus precious our life is -- our species is. If we, as a species, can do that, then maybe we will not self-destruct. And perhaps we will go on to survive, to thrive, and to continue to know far beyond first impressions.
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If you want to learn more about Stephen Webb you can check him out on his web page (Which he should, of course, call WEBB PAGE) here. You can get information on his many books and read his thoughts on many interesting subjects, including science fiction of which he is a huge fan.
If you are new to this blog and me and my books—and let's be honest, well over seven billion people in this world would be—I invite you to check out the ABOUT STEVEN PAUL LEIVA (well, who else would it be about?) page on this blog. And the MY BOOKS page also on this blog.
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