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Quora
Why haven't we heard from the aliens yet?
As Italian actor Rafael Cavacchini asked and recommended one possible theory for why we haven't heard from the aliens:
I'm pretty sure you all have heard about the Fermi's Paradox, the theory that questions where are all the aliens, and why, why, the cosmos is not filled with them. Its a interesting theory, for sure. But I’m here to tell you something entirely different.
I bet you've never heard of Dark Forest Theory.
When we look at space, we have the odd feeling that we are the only ones here. We find it strange that no other form of life has manifested itself, and therefore, we sometimes assume that we, after all, are the only living beings in the universe.
The Dark Forest Theory proposes that the aliens are there, but they chose not to alert us to their presence.
Why Dark Forest Theory is called that way? Well...imagine a forest at night. It's eerily silent. Nothing moving. Not a sound. Someone inside the forest might think that it is empty. But, sure, it is not. The forest, however dark, is full of life. It is only quiet because it is exactly at night that predators go hunting. To survive, the living creatures in the dark forest must remain silent.
What if, what if, our universe was just a big, dark forest, and everybody is silent because if they make any noise, something bad might happen? If this is true, then only the earthlings are stupid enough to announce their presence. The rest of the universe knows very well why the forest remains silent.
Why is this theory terrifying? We have been screaming our existence to the cosmos for almost a hundred years now. Any alien within a hundred light-years from us would be receiving a torrent of radio signals coming from our direction. If we have reason to prevent aliens from knowing about us, as Dr. Stephen Hawking believed, we could get into trouble.
So, back to the question…
Why haven't we heard about the aliens yet?
If the Dark Forest Theory is correct, they are purposely hidden in the darkness of space for fear of death. This would explain why we didn't find any alien radio signals: other civilizations are so afraid of being detected that they purposely avoid sending any evidence of their own existence.
There is also another similar question: "Why haven’t we found aliens after so much time? Has any scientist proven that through equations of physics that aliens exist?"
Our comment
It probably isn’t so much a question of mathematical equations (although important for developing a technology), but it could be more a case of our attitude to life in general and how we treat life from a sociological point-of-view that may determine whether aliens exist and is observable by all of us.
Otherwise, we could try to build the technology (and all the equations that come with it) to take us to the stars and find out the answer.
If we rely on the latter option, a group of scientists of the British Interplanetary Society has looked at the problem of interstellar travel in 1974. Based on scientific knowledge and technology at the time, the scientists recommended nuclear technology as the best way to achieve this. It means a journey to Barnard’s Star can be done in 60 years, and Alpha Centauri in 45 years. The only drawback in the system is the question of costs. However, the scientists did conclude in their report that any civilisation beyond our planet could implement such a technology if they so choose and make the flight if cost was not a consideration.
But what about today? Is there something faster to make the journey?
Latest research is now indicating that there is a solution. And it involves the exponential acceleration concept from the Abraham-Lorentz formula in classical electrodynamics. In other words, get any lightweight (i.e., less energy and thus easier to accelerate) symmetrical “newspaper-thin” hollow metal object and reshape it slightly to be asymmetrical, inject a high-frequency oscillating charge on its surface, and as it emits higher energy density radiation from its surface over the slightly more curved position, it causes the object to recoil and accelerate in the opposite direction, which according to the solution of the formula is “exponential”.
Can we implement this technology? Good question. Perhaps it has already been achieved?
What matters here is that once we know about the correct technology to employ and can achieve quick journey times to the stars (only for those who participate in the flight in accordance with Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, but not for those who stay behind on a planet), then technically speaking we would be at least 90 per cent there in proving aliens exist. Because if we can build the technology, we know other civilisations out there should be able to do the same thing. It is just a question of whether we can see this technology in action from these other civilisations.
Have some people already seen this technology by now?
Now the final ten percent needed to finally prove aliens exist is to actually “see the aliens” (as scientists are trusting of their eyes and/or instruments). So that means going on the journey to a Sun-like star, find a planet at the right distance from the star, and see what is down there. Given the age of the star, there should be adequate time for life to evolve and for us to see how far things have progressed for the alien lifeforms.
But even if we are not too sure yet about all of this, we can make reasonable scientific assumptions. For example, there are enough Sun-like stars out there in the Milky Way alone to provide the time and stable energy supplies to support life on an unseen planet. On the basis of probability, it is highly likely there has to be alien life out there, and quite technological ones too. Since we have radio communication technology, it is not impossible to send out radio signals with enough power directed to another nearby Sun-like star. By now we should be able to hear from them, but we haven’t. And if we assume that aliens are more advanced and know how to reach us physically in a spacecraft (which may explain the radio silence because of the delay problems in sending and receiving signals and how lucky one has to be to know precisely when the signal arrives), again the aliens are not keen to directly speak with us. Unless, of course, you would like to include those symmetrical glowing flying objects called UFOs with electromagnetic side-effects reported by a number of witnesses as potential evidence.
Everything that has been said so far is all leading us to believe that not only should aliens exist, but should be here by now. To be more scientific about this, if we used the feasible and achievable (but costly) nuclear technology approach for interstellar travel to reach just a tad under 10 per cent the speed of light, the mathematics of galactic colonization by Sir Frederick Hoyle, a former professor of astronomy at Cambridge University, England, and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of University College, Cardiff, tells us it would take a mere 2 million years to colonize the Milky Way (i.e., every star in the galaxy). Of course, a more targeted approach on Sun-like stars would reduce the time further. And if there is a way to travel faster, well imagine where we stand.
We should by now expect aliens to be here, or at the very least have used radio communications to let us know they exist. Yet as Enrico Fermi stated quite clearly, “What are they?”
It is looking like this is not so much a technological (and hence mathematical) problem, but more a sociological problem. The fact that we are still here is quite telling and speaks volumes about the possibility that aliens that can reach our planet are not hellbent at invading and taking over our planet. They would have had ample opportunities to do so in the past. Why wait?
Or have the aliens already seen Earth in the past and have decided to go back home? It can’t be because the Earth could not support alien life. Earth is a perfectly fine specimen of a life-bearing planet. Surely it can support the needs of the alien. Or has the alien decided to return to let everyone know about this planet and we are about to get invaded? If it is going to take centuries to reach our planet, it would be an absolute bugger for the aliens to decide to turn back to tell everyone else about Earth and the great party they can have here. Too far. And it would make the aliens look rather dumb too. You must as well start plundering the Earth while you are here. Eat up the inhabitants and do what you like on Earth.
But yet they haven’t.
The more we look around on this planet, the more astonishing this discovery is for science. The fact that we are still here, is truly amazing. Unless, of course, you are of the view that we are the aliens. In which case, why have we become less of a predator compared to our past and only now are we starting to eat our way to oblivion once again by destroying our natural resources? Haven’t we learned a thing or two from our long and arduous past? And why haven't we encountered a more dangerous alien predator to deal with us and take over our planet? We should by now be having Star Wars on Earth with various dangerous aliens out there.
But if we are not the aliens sitting on the surface of the Earth, then why should we still be here?
Forget the critics who argue that the technology is not there for interstellar travel. We already know it is scientifically feasible and achievable to undertake interstellar travel with nuclear technology if politicians were willing to spend the money on it. It might be costly for us, but for another civilization in our galaxy? Probably not. All it takes is just one civilization to make the decision to venture to the stars, no matter how slow and ancient the technology is for traveling to the stars. Time is on the side of any civilization that dares itself to make the journey. It is all a question of being patient and allowing many generations to come and go on the journey until eventually another star is reached (most probably a Sun-like star, as one could imagine the crew and passengers getting upset if they ended up at a red dwarf with no planets or planets that are inhospitable to life and then the Captain says, "Ah well, it seems there are no planets to support life and for us to colonise. Might as well move onto the next star." We can hear the crowd saying "Zzzz..", "WTF?!", or elaborate on some unmentionable obscenities along the way too. We can be fairly sure the journey will target the right stars).
So mathematically and technically speaking, the aliens should be here. But, for some reason, they are not.
There is only one explanation. And it is one that requires us to look more deeply into certain sociological theories, the most obvious of which is the likelihood that aliens are probably following a principle of non-interference with us.
Either that, or the aliens are still struggling to adapt to viruses and bacteria on our planet. But again, there is plenty of time to adapt and use technology to deal with the little critters. So again it makes no sense why we should be here or not have seen the aliens by now. We are forced to return to the non-interference principle as the only logical explanation (although I would be curious to know of an alternative explanation).
But if we want to use some kind of indirect evidence to support this principle in action, we have to look at those controversial UFO reports to see what could be happening.
If we are to rely on credible UFO reports of people who have allegedly been taken onboard and examined by "aliens" and described what they have seen of the occupants, the internal and external structure of the UFOs, and the electromagnetic side-effects when the UFOs are in operation (and no, not all witnesses required hypnosis to recall their interesting experiences), then it seems the aliens can not only walk around on Earth to study plants and certain animals (including ourselves) without too much trouble, but have chosen to leave and go back to wherever they came from without a second thought of, “Geez, what a nice planet. We might as will take over it and get rid of these humans.” There is none of that going on according to the UFO witnesses.
It is looking more like aliens who are able to reach our planet with a technology are not here to cause harm or act as a "predator" to our species or any other species on Earth. It looks as if the aliens are practising an ancient concept of love that forbids direct intervention. Partly because we are not exactly a friendly lot given our efforts to destroy life and the natural environment and we are still trigger-happy to kill anything we are afraid of or don't understand (and we cannot tolerate diversity in life and personal views as yet), but also we need to make our own decisions and to experience the consequences of our actions. To figure things out for ourselves seems to be essential here. And for good reasons too. Aliens will not save us if we choose to annihilate ourselves in a nuclear war. They are too far away. By the time they see the war through our television broadcasts, many years have passed. We would have destroyed ourselves and much of life on Earth. We must make our own choices, and we must live by them. Hopefully, we will make the right decisions...the ones that promote love and allow for all life to prosper and grow.
At the same time, by learning for ourselves and experiencing the consequences, we can question more of the universe and realise aliens would probably have to exist out there, and in large numbers. We will naturally question why we have not been visited, like we are doing right now (at least we have some proof of our curiosity). Or maybe we have been visited, if only we open our eyes and use our imagination to see how the observations from witnesses can help us to solve the problem of interstellar travel as well as how aliens behave when they arrive here.
Maybe here lies the answer.
Perhaps all it takes to see these aliens is a little more care of our planet, a willingness to be open-minded, to listen more to everyone's diverse views and backgrounds, including witnesses of these alien visitations, and just be more curious to find the answers (not just through our eyes, but also through our imagination when we cannot directly grab the evidence from the aliens). Once the aliens see this attitude among our kind, there is no reason why aliens cannot give a broader message to humankind that they are here and are not doing anything to harm us. We can finally accept that aliens are there. It is up to us to work it out for ourselves.
But one thing is certain. When we do build the first (electromagnetic) spacecraft to take us to the stars, we will have to be good, curious and loving creative and universal citizens travelling to the stars. We need to have the right attitude. The last thing we want to do is be a threat or a "predator" to other civilizations. For they can easily put us away and make us extinct. All it takes is to introduce an alien contagion on Earth to target our kind and do it surreptitiously in a form of guerilla warfare tactic that no human can deal with. And that will be enough to see us gone forever. In the end, it is in our best interest to look after life on Earth and our fellow human beings, and be curious with all things, including the aliens when we go out there. That would be an important first step towards showing how far we have come on this planet before we can ever consider visiting alien lifeforms on other planets.