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Anonymous Coward writes:
https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-civilizations-may-have-already-colonized-galaxy-study-2019-8
The Milky Way could be teeming with interstellar alien civilizations — we just don't know about it because they haven't paid us a visit in 10 million years.
A study published last month in The Astronomical Journal[$] posits that intelligent extraterrestrial life could be taking its time to explore the galaxy, harnessing star systems' movement to make star-hopping easier.
The work is a new response to a question known as the Fermi paradox, which asks why we haven't detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
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Fermi Paradox Paper: Aliens Could Take Their Time Settling the Galaxy
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(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 10 2019, @08:55AM
Well no. There's no proof they've been here, but there's no proof they haven't either. A much more advanced civilization could probably infiltrate us freely, not the point.
Where are all the signals from civilizations that were at 20th century tech however many light years away they are from us, that we should see their broadcasts? Where their signals?
Why have we yet to pick up a single extraterrestrial broadcast? If intelligent life is something that normally develops on planets about this far from a yellow dwarf, and intelligent life normally spends about a century broadcasting RF before rearranging around different signalling conventions, then why have we yet to capture a single alien sitcom?
Either "intelligent" life meaning only something on par with us is much less common than we would otherwise think likely, or our own development path was abnormal, or or or. I can think of plenty of ors. You probably can too, I hope you can.
One of the most fundamental forms of intelligence is the ability to notice the bit that doesn't fit. But just noticing it is no guarantee you can explain it. And being able to explain it in a convincing and useful manner is still no guarantee you got it right.
We're still little more than rodents crawling on the surface of the third big rock out from a perfectly ordinary yellow dwarf star, on the edge of a perfectly normal spiral galaxy, somewhere. We should keep trying to understand, but we shouldn't feel too awful about recognizing that we clearly do not yet understand.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?