What Paradox?

Although he died shortly after my sixth birthday, it only makes sense that we mess around with SpaceTime so I can talk with renowned physicist Enrico Fermi. There are many topics I would like to talk about with him, but all the recent chatter about the Kepler Mission and the search for “other Earths” prompted me to choose The Fermi Paradox . . .

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Enrico, may I speak frankly? Eccellente!

As I understand it, you are bothered by the assertion that the sheer vastness of the universe mandates the existence of a multitude of advanced civilizations right here in the Milky Way galaxy – and “billions and billions" more, as Carl would say, beyond our galaxy. You ask, quite logically, “Why is there no evidence of these innumerable super civilizations? Where are their space probes, their telescopes? Since a vast number of them must be more advanced than we, why, even if we are not bright enough to observe them, have they failed to contact us?” That’s the “paradox” right, Enrico?

Well, obviously, there are folks who assert that the aliens have contacted us, and continue to do so every day. Unfortunately, many in that camp also wear tinfoil hats and underwear to block the evil rays. That’s not where I am going with this.

I am inclined to believe that intelligence is a fairly common commodity – universewise. And I am swayed by the notion that we are not terribly unique in the unimaginable sweep of the heavens. But I would also assert that it is our very similarity to other intergalactic pools of intelligence that accounts for the unseemly interstellar silence that surrounds us. How so? Excellent question, Enrico!

You will notice that I advocate the commonality of intelligence. That says little, if anything, about wisdom. Those are very, very different characteristics. I break it up this way in my classes: Humanity is awash in a flood of data. We are unique, here on earth, in the extent to which we can turn that information into knowledge. More than another other terrestrial species we see patterns in the data, we can establish causality. If I do this, then this will happen. That is the hallmark of intelligence. It has little to do with wisdom.

Wisdom is the ability to choose, from all available options, the course of action that is most harmonic, that does the greatest good. I know, I know – talk about your loaded sentence! Greatest good according to whose criteria, using what measures, to what end? I know, I know – it makes my head hurt just to think about it. Which is why I believe wisdom is far less common in the universe than mere intelligence. “Less common” doesn’t really express it – maybe “incredibly rare” is more accurate.

Let’s use ourselves as an example. I think we can make a pretty good case for "intelligent". E=MC2, democracy, stem cell transplants, The Kepler Mission itself – pretty intelligent stuff. We can also lay claim to creative genius – Michelangelo’s David, Ode to Joy, The Bean in Millennium Park. It’s not that hard to find heart-stopping beauty here on Planet Earth. Ah, but wisdom. That’s another notion altogether.

The same gene pool that spawned those intellectual and artistic achievements continues to self-destruct at the drop of a hat. We kill one another with the same élan as we rub wings with the angels. We are born into ancient beliefs – political, religious, and philosophical – and spend much of our lives running from evolving evidence that confronts those “born into” truths. We demonize each other in the name of God, and we may well destroy our own planet before we ever walk on another. Human beings – go figure!

That is why there really is no paradox, Enrico. Intelligence seems firmly bound to arrogance, as hydrogen is bound to oxygen. And that intelligent arrogance keeps our feet of clay earthbound, as our petty antagonisms and hubris focuses our attention well below the stars. Hence, intelligence spread throughout the universe would not mandate a stream of aliens at our doorstep. What? How about wisdom?

Oh, certainly. There are undoubtedly races spread across the heavens that are both intelligent and wise – very wise. It is, I assume, their wisdom that keeps us from finding them.