MAYBE THE ANSWER TO THE FERMI PARADOX IS THAT THEY’VE BEEN WATCHING OUR NEWS BROADCASTS: The Zoo Hypothesis: Are aliens avoiding Earth?

In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi asked a very important question over lunch at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Based on the number of galaxies we know exist, how many stars are inside those galaxies, and how many planets potentially orbit those stars, probability states that there should be alien life.

So, where is everybody?

This question – known as the Fermi Paradox – raised a lot of eyebrows, because it’s a logical thought when considering just how vast our Universe is. While there are many different hypotheses out there that attempt to concoct an answer, one of the best and most thought-provoking is the zoo hypothesis.

The zoo hypothesis was thought up in 1973 by MIT radio astronomer John Ball. He posited that, yes, there might well be intelligent aliens out there, but maybe they are simply ignoring us, forcing us to live in a cosmic ‘zoo’ or wildlife sanctuary where they can monitor our activity without disturbing it.

In other words, the hypothesis assumes that alien life is out there, but it’s so advanced, it either does not want to influence our primitive society, or it knows not to get involved with other intelligent lifeforms.

This makes sense when you consider that life might have evolved and progressed at a much quicker pace on other planets in our galaxy.

The rate at which humanity has progressed over the last 100 years alone sheds a bit of light on how much further along a civilisation that has lasted 100 million years longer than us might be.

I’m actually leaning toward the hypothesis that we’re the Old Ones, the Forerunners, the first intelligent life in the galaxy.