| rdfs:comment | - The Fermi paradox, in brief, raises the question of why we have yet to observe evidence of extraterrestrial life. The simplest explanation would of course be that such life is extremely rare compared to just how mind-rendingly, jaw-droppingly, eye-wateringly, tooth-shatteringly huge the universe is, how hard it is to generate signals detectable across light-years of space, and what a small part of its lifespan we've been witness to, but many creators prefer to introduce a more interesting reason into their universes. Common explanations include: Examples of Invisible Aliens include:
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| abstract | - The Fermi paradox, in brief, raises the question of why we have yet to observe evidence of extraterrestrial life. The simplest explanation would of course be that such life is extremely rare compared to just how mind-rendingly, jaw-droppingly, eye-wateringly, tooth-shatteringly huge the universe is, how hard it is to generate signals detectable across light-years of space, and what a small part of its lifespan we've been witness to, but many creators prefer to introduce a more interesting reason into their universes. This can serve two functions. On the one hand, it can provide the author with some excuse for referencing alien cultures, providing alien archaeological sites, and similar without actually introducing a viable alien culture. On the other, it can allow for the creation of interstellar societies that would otherwise appear implausible, especially when they've been so active in our own backyard lately that we would presumably have noticed them in reality. Common explanations include: 1.
* Disappearing or becoming difficult to observe (at least at interstellar distances) is a natural outgrowth of technological development. 2.
* There's a race of aliens, generally of the Sufficiently Advanced variety, who are somehow ensuring that civilizations don't see each other. 3.
* All the spacefaring aliens are involved in a cosmic conspiracy to remain hidden from Earth, possibly because we aren't judged to be advanced enough to know about them, or because we absolutely scare the crap out of them for some reason. 4.
* The Weirdness Censor strikes again. The reason we haven't seen any explanation of aliens is that we're overlooking the obvious in our quest to exaggerate our own importance and significance. 5.
* All the other aliens are on a pre-technological (or even pre-sentient) state of development. No technology = No Radio Transmissions. 6.
* We're first. Yay us. Contrast Absent Aliens, in which the simple explanation is taken as correct. Examples of Invisible Aliens include:
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