Pathological Science #5 Fermi's Paradox

The Logics - Pathological Science Fermi's Paradox

Larry Neal Gowdy

What Fermi's Paradox Is

Numerous sources estimate that there are about two-trillion galaxies in the observable universe, with each galaxy containing about a hundred-million stars on average (I myself have not counted the galaxies and stars, so I do not know whether the number is reasonably accurate or not). Of the approximated 200-million-trillion stars, it is statistically assured (math-based science) that there must also be planets of similar life-supporting features as Earth's, some of which are allegedly billions of years older than Earth, and the mathematical odds state that some of the planets must support life.

According to reported estimates, within the Milky Way galaxy alone there ought to be somewhere around 1,000 to 100,000 intelligent alien civilizations that are similar or more advanced than humans. The reported problem, however, is that there is no evidence that civilized life exists beyond the planet Earth.

The alleged contradiction — between [1] the mathematical prediction and [2] the actual absence of evidence — is often referred to as Fermi's paradox, named after the physicist Enrico Fermi who, during an alleged casual conversation about aliens in 1950, allegedly asked 'where is everybody?' when asking why aliens are not on Earth. I myself have not researched Enrico Fermi's life, nor have I researched the origins of the Fermi's paradox term, but I have seen a mention that Fermi's name was wrongfully attributed by politicians and the news media (no surprise there), and that the Hart-Tipler argument might actually be the name(s) that ought to be more closely attributed.

Regardless of the accuracy or inaccuracy of whichever term is used, Fermi's paradox is currently the most popular term used by the general public, and it is popularly associated with the topic of man's search for space aliens.

Article Background

I began this article several weeks ago when reading an individual's comments on Fermi's paradox. I had never before given attention to Fermi's paradox, but the topic fits well into the other topics of pathological science, and so I wanted to include Fermi's paradox within my other articles. Pathological Science #1 touched on a few examples of how some scientists have invented some rather ridiculous theories, Pathological Science #2 Binary touched on the false science of a binary universe, Pathological Science #3 Experts gave examples of frauds who claimed of themselves to be 'expert' scientists, and Pathological Science #4 Emotions illustrated how science's lists and descriptions of emotions lend evidence of fake 'expert' scientists as well as science itself being a negative ideology.

Examples of Pathological Science in Fermi's Paradox

The first thought that should always be in mind before all others is to care about other people. Awareness, consciousness, and thinking should occur before acting. Being mindful is to care, to reason the other person's welfare, to act within a creative harmony that betters others as well as one's self; politeness, kindness, gentleness, and all of the other positive behaviors are positive because they create a better world for everyone. Caring about other people is an act of advanced intelligence, one that has conscious control over one's own thoughts and behaviors: it is the act of being smart.

The careless disregard for others is a core symptom of psychopathy, a severe mental disease that has no harmony with anything. The act of having no regard for others is negative, it destroys lives, it destroys one's self, it destroys the environment, it destroys everything.

Ignorant humans are not much affected physiologically by negative behavior because the individuals are not intelligent enough to retain memories, nor to think, nor to cross-light knowledge, nor to self-reflect to create a sense of guilt and shame. Negativity most harms intelligent minds, the minds that have memories, and must always remember and think of the harm that was caused by unthinking humans.

Many humans are inherently hateful, violent, and without regard for anyone or anything other than their own petty self-desires and narcissistic self-worship. Humans cannot so much as live peacefully amongst themselves, and far less would the humans be capable of living peacefully with an intelligent alien species.

The act of sending the Voyager probes into space was an act of careless disregard for all living creatures throughout the universe. If the probes should ever make contact with an alien civilization with a similar intelligence as humans', the probe's information will cause harm to the alien civilization, and possibly to humanity as well.

If a probe were to make contact with an advanced alien civilization, the act could very easily cause the extinction of the alien species. Ignorant humans do not so much as know of the emotions and physiology of humans', and within their ignorance the stupid humans believe that their own hate and violence is normal and acceptable to all living beings. All American television and movies of humans interacting with space aliens all share the same theme, hate and violence, which appears to substantiate that man would act with hate and violence if he is ever permitted contact with an alien species.

Similarly as the felons in prisons, most humans do not think before they act; they act first, and then later they think of what they had already done. Humans too commonly only think with hindsight. The act of being mindful, it is rare amongst humans.

Humans have responded to the Fermi paradox, not by first thinking of the primary act of mindfully caring for others, but rather the humans have acted with the callous disregard for all things except the humans' own selfish desires for their own personal enjoyments.

The many proposed solutions for Fermi's paradox are only aimed at satisfying the theorists' own desires, and none of the solutions give attention to forethought, nor to a concern for the well-being of space aliens. The callous disregard exhibited within Fermi's paradox solutions illustrate the mind of man, and the mind behind pathological science.

Lewis Terman said that the inability to cross-light thoughts was one of the natures of imbeciles. The individuals who sent the man-made probes into space did not first cross-light the thoughts of the act being a crime upon all living things, nor did the individuals cross-light their callous disregard for others being the symptom of psychopathy.

The stupid person, whether depicted in literature, proverb, or the ephemeral joke column, is always (and justly, it would seem) characterized by a huge tolerance for absurd contradictions and by a blunt sensitivity for the fine points of a joke. Intellectual discrimination and judgment are inferior. The ideas do not cross-light each other, but remain relatively isolated. Hence, the most absurd contradictions are swallowed, so to speak, without arousing the protest of the critical faculty.

...Sometimes the low-grade imbecile starts off in a very promising way, then apparently forgets the instructions (loses sight of the goal), and begins to play... in a random way. His mental processes are not consecutive, stable, or controlled. He is blown about at the mercy of every gust of momentary interest.

...Middle-grade imbeciles of adult age have much the same difficulty as normal children of 4 years in recognizing mutilations or absurdities in pictures of familiar objects. (The Measurement of Intelligence — An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, Lewis M. Terman - Professor of Education Stanford Junior University, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916)

Several times I have used quotes from Terman's writings with the hope that people might self-reflect and recognize that normal human behavior is not smart. If humans wish to make peaceful contact with intelligent space aliens, then humanity must first learn how to live peacefully itself, which is a thing that mankind does not yet have the intellectual capacity to do.

Solutions to Fermi's Paradox

The majority of the discussions of the Fermi paradox are as entertainment for people who enjoy thinking about things that are unknowns. It is a good thing that humans can pose to themselves questions, and it is also a good thing that humans can pose to themselves plausible answers of unknowns, but it is not a good thing when some humans begin believing that their imaginary answers are true facts.

Numerous individuals have written extensively on Fermi's paradox, which is okay and can be interesting to read, but some of the debates between different hypotheses have split the debaters into opposing sides, forming cliques that compete with the other, and evolving a manner of behavior that is very much similar to science's and western philosophy's debates of unknown things. Near the center of the debates is the anthropocentric point of view that all answers must conform to and support the median human's interpretation of life. The debates of Fermi's paradox are an illustration of how humanity does not think first, nor cross-light thoughts, nor care for others, but rather "begins to play... in a random way" while with the callous disregard for others.

The evolving debates on Fermi's paradox are an illustration of uncareful imaginations that often lead to uncareful conclusions, which helps to show from which point of view that the 'things that aren't so' of pathological science were born. One example is a strong insistence that all space aliens must use a form of mathematics that agrees with man-made mathematics. Another example is the unquestioned assumption that humans ought to be able to communicate with an alien species, but the assumption does not cross-light the fact that humans cannot so much as adequately communicate between themselves. Other examples include multi-cellular life forms, radio waves, and even capitalism.

Man's math-based science of statistics was incorrect, resulting in the Fermi paradox, and yet man still wants to believe that his man-made mathematics has no flaw. Man's math is man-made, it is a primitive man-made language that may work well enough for closed systems that are not too complex, but even when the math is shown to have flaws, humans still trust their math.

Alien Minds Do Not Think Identically the Same Way as Humans

One of man's most highly acclaimed scientific achievements is the theory of spacetime. The mathematical theory points to how time is experienced differently for different objects moving at different speeds — time dilation. Throughout the history of man, the normal human interpretation of space and time has been that time remains a constant regardless of speed or direction, but Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity suggested that time might not be a constant for objects moving at different speeds. In 1971, the Hafele–Keating experiment of using cesium-beam atomic clocks in aircraft illustrated that time was measured differently between the moving aircraft clocks and clocks that remained 'motionless' on the ground. The Hafele–Keating experiment suggested that Einstein's special relativity theory was correct.

Regardless of the obvious errors and omissions within the math and within the Hafele–Keating experiment itself, Einstein is popularly believed to have been science's greatest genius, and perhaps the world's greatest genius.

What if an alien mind were to function through a different patterning than man's? What if an alien mind did not process thoughts of time and matter like what Sapir and Whorf claimed: "depend upon the nature of the language... precepts from culture and language" and "one adjusts to reality [through] the use of language"? (Benjamin Whorf, The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language, 1939, Edward Sapir, The Status of Linguistics as a Science, 1929.) What if the alien mind were to think with durations, arcs, speeds, angles, and other forms of judgment, and from before birth the alien mind naturally recognized time dilation in all matter, even at very slow speeds, and the alien could physically feel time dilation? To the aliens, Einstein would appear to be very primitive of intelligence, and the aliens might also interpret most humans as being little more than erratic organic automatons. Humans would have extreme difficulty communicating with the aliens, and the aliens would not be able to communicate any depth of thought to humans.

There is no need to speculate of whether the alien minds might be possible; they already exist on Earth. Some humans do indeed think with durations, arcs, speeds, angles, and other forms of judgment, and the individuals do consciously and sensorially recognize time dilation in all objects. The individuals cannot communicate a width of thought with normal people, and normal people's forms of communication and mathematics are irrational to the individuals. If most humans cannot so much as recognize a difference of minds within their own species, then so much more would the humans likely not recognize an advanced space alien's mind, and far less likely could humans communicate with the space aliens.

The thing that I wish to point to here is that most humans [1] believe that the special theory of relativity is true and that it proves time dilation, but [2] the same humans also believe that they can perfectly reduce an object or organic process — such as an emotion — through reductionism without regard of time dilation. Man's science states two different things that contradict the other. To the normal human, the "ideas do not cross-light each other, but remain relatively isolated. Hence, the most absurd contradictions are swallowed, so to speak, without arousing the protest of the critical faculty."

It is useful to also note that Einstein himself continued to attempt reductionism of various things without giving thought of the differences of time dilation. Even Einstein contradicted his own theories and mind — not just a couple oops, but hundreds of times on all topics — which appears to suggest that he might not have been quite as bright as the public believes him to have been.

Why would an intelligent space alien care to communicate with humans? Seriously, why? Within the kind of alien mind mentioned above, the spatial durations can form specific patterns of geometrical shapes when the expressed thoughts harmonize. Some of the uncommon shapes can be found here on Earth, carved upon prehistoric boulders and upon ancient temple walls. The shapes are meaningless to everyone except to the individuals who have experienced the shapes firsthand.

A very common response by normal humans is to loudly and emotionally claim that the 'alien' mind must have a defect and/or some other problem because the 'alien' mind does not think the same thoughts that an 80 IQ human thinks. It might be expected for a human to judge the world around them relative to themselves, but the hateful claims and uncontrolled emotional outbursts are also what would occur when meeting an intelligent alien. One of the first things that humans would do when meeting an alien would be to hate on the alien.

Like zoo monkeys with their palm stuck out while waiting for someone to hand them a peanut, most humans would not recognize an alien civilization to exist unless the civilization possessed peanuts or something else that the humans want to be given to themselves. The Voyager probes were man's way of holding out his palm.

If an alien species did have advanced minds, and the aliens did achieve an advanced civilization and intelligence, then there is no rational reason to assume that the aliens would find an interest of communicating with 'human insects'.

Alien Minds Do Not Learn the Same Identical Way as Humans

As mentioned with more detail in Child Prodigy:

"...Prodigious achievement is better conceptualized as a remarkable coincidence. The coincidence consists of a human organism with a set of powerful predispositions or qualities that interact in a human environment over a segment of time during which it becomes possible for that individual to express the potential he possesses.

...It is more dazzling because the same processes that are responsible for all human development are responsible for early prodigious achievement...

...Early prodigious achievement will not occur in the absence of specialized resources and intensive efforts on the part of master instructors in the field, that is, without education."

...As mentioned earlier, even in the most extreme cases on record, intensive education over several years is required in bringing the talented child to full bloom as a master practitioner.

...No matter how remarkable are the feats of child prodigies, these feats are not achieved without intensive, prolonged, educational assistance." (Dr. David Feldman, The Gifted and Talented: Their Education and Development, 78th Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1979).

The 'prodigies' of common study are individuals who are similar as to what Feldman and most others have researched. Four observations quickly rise: [1] the normal interpretation of prodigy merely implies a person who does the same things as what most everyone else does, except the prodigies do the same things more often and at an earlier age, [2] an individual cannot be interpreted as a prodigy unless the individual conforms to and accepts science and adult education as life's ultimate goals, [3] the individual must be awarded the title of prodigy through popular consensus by the lower strata of humanity, and [4] the solutions to Fermi's paradox are all based upon the assumption that nothing can exist that is outside of the normal human's own ability and interpretation of what a prodigy implies.

Education might be necessary for mundane things for mundane humans, but not even all humans are dependent on adult educators. It is a fallacy of logic to claim that all knowledge is attained from books, while the claimant ignores that someone had to first write the books. And who is so bold as to claim that they are the 'master educator' of the children who think thoughts that the educator himself cannot think?

Alien minds are not prodigious minds; alien minds are wholly different, and have little or no similarities to the normal human manner of thinking. Alien minds are not a product of normal human minds, nor are they products of chance evolutionary genetic mutations. Self-will, self-determination, self-effort, and caring are among the things that give rise to an alien mind. Almost all humans are selfish, self-centered, and uncaring, which will forever keep humans ignorant and dependent on two-dimensional math.

Science does not know what consciousness is, nor what thoughts are, nor memories, nor emotions, nor much of anything at all about the mind — not even a rational guess of the how and why of animal migration — but science is popularly believed to be the one and only source of truth about all minds. All science of the mind — including aliens' minds — is pathological science.

If a man cannot do what normalcy cannot understand, then the man is normal. If normalcy can understand a space alien, then the space alien cannot be advanced. Fermi's paradox is median man's anthropocentric interpretation of all life and of all things.

Know the thing first, and then form decisions and behaviors that are judged and guided by the first standard: care about other people, including alien life.

(Note: the article's photo is from my personal collection of photographs and videos that were taken in 2003 during a 118 mile trip that was through farm regions, cities, over hills, down into canyons, and turning different directions at intersections while numerous 'UFOs' remained alongside of my vehicle. Aside from the photographs and videos, there was also physical evidence. I had begun to write an article under the title of "118 Miles of UFOs", but I discovered that no one really cares about UFOs, not even MUFON. For over five years my wife nightly watched the 'UFOs' on our rural land, and we (and visitors) had frequently seen the 'UFOs' near our lands for around fifteen years, but for me, the 'UFOs' were too common to be much interesting except when they were near to me as I walked alone at night. The article photo is not of the 'UFOs', the photo was maybe created by moving the camera while pointed at car lights and a blinking tower light. I would not place an actual 'UFO' photo online.)