Weighing in on the Fermi - Hart Paradox

Years before we began to confirm the existance of exo-planets we began looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Assuming that an advanced life form would be following advances similar to our own and would be using similar technology, we began to listen to the nearby stars hoping to intercept their version of Saturday Night Live. We have been listening for a long time, but the rest of the universe remains mute. During this early period we convinced ourselves that it was unreasonable that among the 200 billion stars in our galaxy our sun would be the only star with a planet supporting life and that humans would be the only technologically advanced life form. For most humans the question was as moot as the universe was mute and were satisfied with science fiction stories and entertaining monster movies to answer the question. Our top scientists, however, took the paradox seriously and, like scientists always do, began developing formulae based on probability and statistics to find answers. But without evidence their efforts only expanded the paradox. As Fermi shouted out in frustration while having dinner with Teller and other scientists; "Where are they"? Now we have discovered that most stars have planets, that the sun is a large star, not an ordinary star, and that we have been missing the most common stars, red dwarfs, which often have multiple planets. We have also discovered that some of the three hundred moons in our solar system have conditions suitable for the development of life, and the statistical guesses made by Fermi, Teller and Hart were far short of the hundreds of millions of possibilities projected by or recent discoveries. "Where are they"? The paradox, now deepened, has prompted many speculative answers. Tecnologically advanced life forms destroy themselves on a regular basis before they have much to say to their neighbors in nearby solar systems or, that living forms rarely evolve to a level where tecnology emerges or, that advanced life forms choose to keep quiet for safety, out of paranoia, or because they are stealthy hunters or, they use communication methods we can't monitor or they have been monitoring us and finding us unsuitable for contact are avoiding us and on and on.... I choose to respond only to the proposition that we are not hearing the echoes of other advanced civilizations because very few life forms advance to an aware state allowing an investigative approach to their surroundings using tools to enhance their senses. Our observations and comparisons of lines of development of hundreds of extant and extinct phyla and species makes it clear that fragile chemical messages formed from ordinary matter optimize the possibility, the continuance, and the adaptable progressive compexity of the energy concentrations we call life. Form and function emerge better suited to fit new environments and to persevere, not because the better are chosen, but because the less suitable are eliminated. The process only works if there is a large number of living options to be measured against the totality of the conditions in which they exist, and if the testing is subtle and only small differences, directed by randomly produced chemical directives, are eliminated or continue. The form and function of living forms are not adjusted directly, only the chemical language that directs their emergance is adjusted as the form or function directed by these chmical directives succeeds or fails. The living form struggles to survive and reproduce in the short term, The gene struggles to survive and reproduce in the long term, and both are prompted by solely natural causes similar to sea foam forming on the sand of an ocean beach. The process, following natural paths is similar to the patterns of atoms and moecules and minerals combining to form succesive states of increasing complexity. We observe and agree that matter follows the same formative patterns throughout the universe and can reasonbly assume that life also follows natural formative patterns in developing adaptive forms and functions. But what of the reasoning abilities needed to transform basic minerals and chemicals into tools and the technology needed to allow cooperative advanced civilizations to develop? Beyond regulating the simplest of living processes genes are inefective in producing further complex developments until early ways to interface with the environment emerge. These random changes are genetic accidents that improve sensitivities to temperature/ chemical conditions or internal conditions and each random adjustment that improves survivability is passed on and over time these advances in microbial awareness become cumulative, lead to parallel developments in form and function and create a partnership between the development of compexity in form with advances in awareness that leads to advanced sensory and cognitive abilities. This parallel progression is evident in all life and is so interdependent that one can assume a reasonable number of exo-planets would follow the same patterns and continued to a maximum optimization of awareness until, like humans, it assumes control of adaptive evolution and overrides natural selection by random genetic abberations. This is a state of development requiering advanced technology and advanced communicative skills, but not necessarily a pace of awareness similar to ours. The many planets that orbit red dwarf stars circle closer in and have a year lasting less than a month, and days of random lenghts. We may be attempting to communicate with an advanced life form with a pace of awareness faster than a humming bird or slower than a snail. Time may not be the only thing that is relative in our strange universe, but the extreeme numbers of planets and moons in our galaxy hints at similar numbers in hundreds of billions of other galaxies and we need to look for other reasons for not finding electromagnetic evidence for advanced life and we need other methods for finding it. The numbers are too large to ignore and the elements needed for life too common. We are alone but where are they?