Theoretical physicist Alexander Berezin from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology has proposed a new explanation for the Fermi paradox. According to the researcher, humans are the only intelligent life form, otherwise they would have been destroyed by aliens. Moreover, humanity itself will exterminate extraterrestrial civilizations that may appear in the future. The scientist's preprint is published in the arXiv repository.
According to the Fermi paradox, alien civilizations should have settled throughout the galaxy, but humanity does not find traces of their existence. Scientists have offered several explanations for this: for example, aliens die before they become detectable, or they cannot make contact due to excessive gravity of the planet or a halt in technological development. However, Berezin believes that such “failing” civilizations should not be taken into account in an attempt to resolve the paradox.
The researcher believes that the only variable that should be introduced when considering the problem is "parameter A" - the probability that alien life, located at a certain distance from the Earth, will become visible to humanity, despite its nature or intelligence. Since alien life, if it already exists, should have mastered the galaxy in about 100 thousand years and be visible to humanity, the value of this variable approaches zero.
Based on the low value of "parameter A", the scientist came to the conclusion that aliens simply do not exist at the moment, and humanity is the first civilization that has reached the current level of technology, and will develop further. Since the development of the Galaxy will require a large amount of resources, their extraction and use will destroy or prevent the emergence of other civilizations, that is, humanity must in the future, intentionally or unintentionally, exterminate other forms of life.
Thus, the physicist concludes, the Fermi paradox is explained by the anthropic principle, according to which humanity can exist only if it is the first technologically advanced civilization. Otherwise, it would have been destroyed long ago by aliens who are not necessarily aggressive, but simply too advanced to "notice" people.