SUMMER 2013
Fermi’s Paradox:
Using formulas to find life in our universe
Constructing the Future:
Two architects’ visions of a better-built future
Genetically Modified Madness: The fight for GMOs & your health
STAR BOUND
The new challenges NASA faces and the rise of commercial space travel
Meet The Writers
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Alex Garcia is a ninth grade LASA student. In his free time, Alex likes to play random video games. His favorite games are Towns, Terraria and Fallout. Along with Video games, Alex likes to read books. Alex’s favorite books are Prey, Jurassic Park (yes, it’s a book), IT, The Shining, Insomnia, The Langoliers, The Speakers of The Dead, and many more Stephen King and Michael Crichton books.
Jake Oakes is a ninth grade LASA student. In his free time, Jake likes to play strategy games and shooters as well as code in Java, HTML, Java Script, and Python, and watch Star Trek. His favorite games are League of Legends, Spore, Black Ops 2, Halo 4, and Warframe. Jake also likes to read books. He has coded. His favorite books are Dune, The Inheritance Cycle, and other Sci-fi and fantasy books.
Augie Stromberger is a ninth grade LASA student who loves Steampunk, British comedy, Coffee, Homestuck, Doctor Who, Coffee, and drawing robots. He enjoys writing, but never seems to get around to it. His favorite books are the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin and Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw. His favorite video games are Portal 2, the Fallout series, and Mass Effect.
Alex Urtado is a student at LASA who moved from Colombia and has lived in the US for three years. In his free time, he enjoys the outdoors, playing soccer and watching it on TV. Alex’s favorite soccer team is the National Soccer team of Colombia, and he is very proud of them. He also enjoys drawing, designing architectural sculptures, and playing video games. Academically, he has interests in math and science.
Table of Contents Photo by: Mike Gonzalez
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Photo by: Dan Wilton/Red Bulletin
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Future Fuels
Future power sources
Fermi’s Paradox
Why haven’t we found aliens?
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Bionic Renaissance
The cyborg foundation is giving rise to our cybernetic future
Starbound
The future of NASA and the space industry
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Photo by Terrafugia
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From Land to Sky
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Will we have flying cars in the future?
Constructing the Future
How Mr. Randolph and many others will be building our houses.
Photo by: Beoing
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Futuristic Fliers
NASA’s contract to build the planes of the future
GMnO?
How healthy are the foods you eat?
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BIONIC RENAISSANCE Story by: Augie Stromberger
How close could we be to integration with machines?
Neil Harbisson is the founder of the Cyborg Foundation- a nonprofit dedicated to helping people become integrated with technology that extends their senses, defending cyborg rights, and promoting cybernetics in the arts. Born with achromatopsia, his eyes could not detect pigment, and he had no true understanding of colors- that is, until he helped to create the eyeborg, a device that allowed him to register the colors around him as sounds, extending his perception of reality and inspiring him to paint in color. Many other recent developments in cybernetic technology are equally astounding, including devices that assist the disabled. We have seen a turning point in the place of cyborg technology in our culture.
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Photo by: Dan Wilton/Red Bulletin
More revolutionary advancements in cyborg technology:
SIGHT FOR SORE EYES:
Photo by: Micky Zlimen
The FDA has approved the first bionic eye- a device allowing blind individuals to detect light and dark. It consists of a panel of electrodes that are surgically implanted in the eye, and a pair of glasses with an attached camera, curing vision-impaired individuals with retinis pigmentosa.
RAT-ICAL INNOVATIONS: Could remote-controlled rats be crucial to search and rescue teams? These rodents have a device called a “Rat pack� connected to their brain, which signals them to move in different directions, effectively allowing us to send them into tight spaces where people might need help. Graphic by: Giulio Frigieri
GATEWAY TO HOPE: BrainGate is a company dedicated to helping disabled people recover their lost capabilities through cybernetic implants and mechanical parts, giving patients the capabilities to move robotic arms and move a cursor on a computer screen connected to their brain. Breakthroughs have included giving a fully paralyzed man the ability to move a cursor on a computer and send emails to his loved ones, and an amputee the ability to move a robotic arm.
Photo by: Paul Wicks
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STAR
BOUND
Is the Final Frontier Drawing Closer? Story by: Augie Stromberger
The Dragon spacecraft docks silently with the International
Space station, extending its mechanical arm to a receiving port. Though this looks like a routine trip to the orbiting research center, this event- the Dragon is the first commercial spacecraft to ever take this journey. Only the governments of America, Japan, Russia, and the European Space Agency have ever made the trip before, and this marks a new era of space exploration: the rise of commercial space travel. These companies are collaborating with NASA in order to create innovative new spacecraft and pave the way for a starbound future. Photo by: NASA
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photo by: hic_loquitur
On the government side of the final frontier, NASA has announced their plan to develop an experimental “Warp Drive” that would bypass our inability to travel faster than light- but Star Trek fans should not rejoice just yet. Very little information about the drive was released to the press, and the machine would
The International Space Station floating in orbit need to utilise exotic matter with negative mass in large quantitieswhich we would have no way of providing for decades, at the very least. We are still many decades away from Mars colonies and extensive space exploration, and the sci-fi dreams of our childhood will require huge advancements in spaceship design. However, the research needed for these technological wonders is already underway. NASA is working on creating radiation shielding for its spacecraft and developing better closed-loop life support systems that will provide the necessary oxygen, water and other critical items
needed for a long trip in space. Robot technology is also at the forefront of space travel, because of their ability to survive in as stated by Brian Roberts, a robotics expert at Goddard space flight center: “I don’t think the space shuttle program could have done a great deal of their missions without robotics,” he added. “You just couldn’t have maintained the Hubble [Space Telescope] without robotics. There’s no way even three or four astronauts floating around could have done that, and there’s no way we could have built the space station without robotics. Just impossible.” Many top scientistists and engineers, including novelist Michio Kaku, have suggested a space plan that involves designing and building self-replicating nanobot ships that would spread through space copying each other, which would require huge advances in robot design and intelligence. According to NASA’s David Steitz, “There’s no question that robotics
during the coming decades you’ll see NASA change and adapt, as the agency has done in the past, to meet the extraordinary challenges and exploration opportunities of the future.” On the subject of current space
Photo by: NASA
Companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have offered a chance to visit space for tens of millions of dollars- a steep price, but one slowly dropping down to the hundredthousand range. Soon the industry will open up to a larger market than the very rich, and the chance to float around in zero gravity and look down at our home planet will be available to a larger demographic than the very rich, as airplane trave l did in the years following World War II.
The Curiosity Rover being tested for its mission on Mars development, LASA Astronomy teacher Ms. Earnhart said, “I really do think space travel’s gonna be really neat. It’s not gonna be the way people think it is- the most important thing about future space travel
“ I think during the coming decades you’ll see NASA change and adapt, as the agency has done in the past, to meet the extraordinary challenges and exploration opportunities of the future.” are critical to the future human exploration of space. Robots are awesome scouts that can go ahead of humans to remote destinations and send back critical data we’ll need in order to prepare life support systems for eventual human visits and help explore destinations where no human could ever go. They’ll be able to perform tasks like construction of habitats or mining for resources while humans address more complex science and exploration efforts.” He also believed NASA’s new Space Technology Mission Directorate will help create the new knowledge and capabilities that will enable future space missions, stating, “I think
is that it will most likely be commercial and private, rather than these big national organizations like NASA and ESA and the Russian Space agency- they will still be major players in research, but actually creating the equipment and sending people up there, and making reasons to keep going back into space, that’s going to be coming from the private sector.” Space tourism is the first step in creating an interstellar future, and the young engineers of today who will design the craft needed for Mars missions can take inspiration from floating in the void of space themselves, experiencing firsthand our new exciting frontier.
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from
Land to Sky The Future is jetting closer and closer
Story by: Alex Urtado
Photo by Terrafugia and Pal-V
Have you ever
A test run of the flying cars, Terrafugia and PAL-V after 10 years in the design phase.
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“The revealing of the tTrrafugia flying car,” Terrafugia.com, 2012 “Transition make flying cars mainstream,” Digitaltrends.com, April 2012 “Pal-V one writting history,” Pal-v.com, 2013
Photo by Pal-V
thought about what type of transportation you will utilize in the next 20 years? Since cars are becoming more developed, what type of car do you think you will possibly drive--a land car, or one that can fly? Jetting to your job will be much faster, and you won’t have to worry about land traffic. Or much better, will you fly the car of your dreams to places you’ve never dreamed of going because you didn’t have enough money for the transportation? Terragugia and Pal-V present the only possible way of finding your future destiny without having to wait so long.
Photo by Pal-V
The Dutch company, Pal-V Europe NV, which started in 2001 to design roadable aircrafts has created their new and first flying car , the Pal- V One (Personal Air and Land Vehicle). The Pal-V One is a prototype car-helicopter that has now come to this generation to provide a new way of conveying. The Pal-V One can fly with the use of gasoline, is much lighter, and less noisy than a typical helicopter and almost as fast as a race car with a velocity of approximately 180 km/h (112 mph) both on land and in air. The Pal-V One will prevent you from getting stuck in traffic to help you get faster to the places that you want to go, and even better, maybe to your job or your child’s baseball game.
The Pal-V One has the ability of folding and unfolding its propellers by itself, meaning you can just get out after you’re parked and leave,but also get in and rush, (in which case you won’t have to), for your next destination.
Which one will be jetting first?
Photo by Terrafugia
Since 2006 the Terrafugia’s award-winning MIT-trained engineers have advanced on the progress of making their latest transition roadable aircraft. They’ve now come with their latest jetting technology. The Terrafugia Transition has already succeeded in most of its testing flights and will be in the market to give us a better way of transportation in the future. One of the most unbelievable things that has never happened the history of transportation has come to existence. Terrafugia has come out with their new Terrafugia Transition roadable aircraft which can work on land just like a normal car and, even better, jet through the open air just like a typical airplane. The Terrafugia Transition can go at least half as fast that it would take a car to cross from Boston, Massachusetts, to San Diego, California, or even further. All these just by jetting through the open air.
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CONSTRUCTING THE FUTURE Story by Alex Urtado
Photo by Hugh Randolph Architects
Hammering here, hammering there, the construction builders put
bricks here and there. Construction workers move from place to place. The sound of bulldozers and smoke of dirt spread everywhere while Hugh Randolph, the president of his own firm, Randolph Architects, stands in his office visualizing the structure and process necessary to build the next house. If the construction parts are not in their right place, how could a house stay up and working for years and years? “We want our houses to be more affordable and of people’s liking,” Randolph said. Architects try to make houses more spacious for the families that live there, with a careful manipulation of light and attention to detail for a better living. Randolph had always dreamed of being an architect since he was seven years old, in order to achieve this goal, he started his career in Washington DC, in a large architectural firm where he worked for five years. Then in 1991, Randolph moved to Austin to study residential design of all sizes and styles. From what he had learned on how to build houses and remodel them, he decided to pursue his dream by starting his own architectural firm from small works to grandiose and well known architectural works. “I started my own firm by taking on small projects and gradually building up more experience and reputation.”
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Photo by Alterstudio Architecture
From his experience and reputation, Randolph wants future houses he wants to focus more on each client and the site of their home. “We want our houses have multi-family housing above detail”, and, “More well adapted to local climates and cultures”. He also wants houses to have a more technological structure with more renewable energy, and better insulation than the houses that we live in now. Randolph wants his houses to have a better way of adaptation to local climates and cultures from other architectural firms. “We prefer for our future houses to be appropriate for the region, and more friendly to their neighborhood,” he says, “things like porches, local materials. More unique and less “cookie-cutter.” Kevin Alter, the president of the Alterstudio, another architecture firm, has worked as an architect for 20 years of professional experience. He has some of the same ideas as Randolph on how houses should work and look in the future. Alter thinks all architects think their own work is the best. “We’re no different than anyone else in this regard. We try to build beautiful, meaningful, well made, ecologically responsible, useful, and thoughtful buildings”. He believes that houses should have a better way of looking. Alter also believes on the way houses electric technology should be used. “I believe geothermal HVAC, solar power and various other ecologically responsible, renewable sources of energy are bound to be more part of the field,” he says. He wants houses work with more energy efficiency, such as with the use of more solar and
“We want our houses to be more affordable and of people’s liking,”
Photo by Alterstudio Architecture
geothermal energy to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Like every architect, Randolph and Alter also have some concerns about selling and construction of future houses. Randolph believes that cutting corners in the construction of houses in the future to save a few dollars has always brought big problems to architects. He also thinks that designs continue to make without regard to local conditions. While Alter fears that the future might continue to be more and more superficially concerned with style and become even cheaper in cost and quality. He hopes that architects are able to gain the momentum of newer technologies to improve quality for similar costs to build, rather than, “simply make things cheaper and of lesser quality, as is the trend,” Alter says, “no different than anyone else in this regard. We try to build beautiful, meaningful, well made, ecologically responsible, useful,
and thoughtful buildings”. However, Randolph and Alter think that what really matters, location and size, has the most importance in future houses. “It seems like the sole way a home is valued is its size and location, nothing about quality or amenities,” Alter says. They believe that houses should be matter what happens, they will keep working to give the world a better way of housing, “from what we build, we’re very proud of it and will keep going” Randolph says.
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Futuristic Fliers Story by: Alex Garcia
The future of flying is coming. In 2010, NASA granted contracts to Boeing, Lockheed,
and Northrop Grumman to bring us quiet, fuel efficient, and low-emission commercial aircraft. The aircraft will need to reach 80 percent of the speed of sound, fly 7,000 miles, have a payload of at least 50,000 pounds, and reach the strict emission standards that are planned for the future. The standards for the future will require the emissions produced by aircraft today to reduced by 75 percent and the fuel efficiency increased by 40 percent. In this article we will analyze what makes each concept aircraft unique and what it brings to the playing field. Boeing’s concept plane
photo by: NASA/Boeing
DESIGNER: BOEING CONCEPT: wing-body hybrid and possibly a new engine. INSPIRATION: Boeing X-48B/C and various other prototypes created by both Boeing and NASA. The Boeing X48C was successfully flown for the first time on Aug. 7, 2012. ADVANTAGES: the wing-body hybrid concept gives the plane more lift, while the hull of the plane can hold hundreds of passengers. The position of the turbofan over the rear body gap reduces the noise greatly ”NASA reveals three visions for a future airliner” Stephen Trimble, January 2011, Flight Global, an aviation web site ”NASA Reveals the Weird and Wonderful Commercial Airliners of 2025” Kit Eaton, January 2011, Fast Company ”Our Future Planes? NASA Reveals The Airplanes Of 2025” Catharine Smith, January 2011, The Huffington Post
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Northrop Gruman’s concept plane
DESIGNER: NORTHROP GRUMMAN CONCEPT: Dual Fuselages and long wings
photo by: NASA/Northrop Grumman
INSPIRATION: The concept plane draws its long wing design from the White Knight vehicle. The White Knight was designed by Scaled Composites, a partner of Northrop. ADVANTAGES: Due to the dual fuselage, the plane will be able to have a part-cargo, part-passenger flights. The placement of the fuselages will help cut down on noise emission. Lastly, the fuselages will be able to hold a huge amount of cargo Lockheed’s concept plane
DESIGNER: LOCKHEED CONCEPT: Box wing and a single large engine.
photo by: NASA/Lockheed
INSPIRATION: the aircraft can be seen as part of Lockheed’s renewed interest in commercial flight, after the 1011 aircraft ceased production. ADVANTAGES: The shape of the wing maximizes surface area, giving the plane more lift. The position of the engine reduces the noise. The familiar shape of the body lets it rely on more proven, robust tech.
Golbal Hawk Vs. The Altair UAV comparison
Weight -8490 pounds
Weight -7000 pounds
Endurance- 34 hours
Endurance -30+ hours
Cruising Speed -404 mph
Cruising Speed - 81–103 mph
Service Ceiling -65,000
Service Ceiling -52,000
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photo by: David McGregor
Corn, one of most heavily modified plants, is avoided by radical Anti-Gmo groups.
Genetically Modified Madness The battle rages on story by Alex Garcia
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The old red barn creaks in the wind. The faded paint peels off in large chunks as the pigs roll around in the pen next to it. About twenty rows of all green, organic crops circle the barn. Thirty college students, covered in plaid and denim, mill through the rows, cutting and gathering crops for the farmers market tomorrow. The chickens waddle around their pen, clucking and pecking at the dark tan dirt. The old sign that leads into the farm reads “Green Gate Farms, cultivating healthy food, communities, and farmers.”
“Our vision is to cultivate a healthy farm that feeds mind, body and soul,” Green Gate’s website says. The farm’s staff and volunteers strive to provide local Austinites with organic, healthy crops. Farmers try to avoid using genetically modified crops (GMOs), but the modified plants can still reside on the farm.
here,” Jamie, a Farmer at Green Gate says.
“The rule in certified organic farming is that you have to try and get certified organic seeds, but if you can’t get the quantity you need and the variety, ya know. If there is a variety of things that does really well
“I think that eating things as naturally as they come is the best thing for our bodies,” Jamie says. “So you can’t maybe grow as many ears per corn per acre with an organic, non-genetically modified plant, but
Both the farmers and the volunteers at Green Gate dislike GMOs, Some more extreme than others. All boil down to the same point, knowing what your putting in your body.
Photo by: Kat Berger
“GMOs are an anti-human technology. They threaten the continuation of life on our planet. They are a far worse threat than terrorism, or even the threat of nuclear war,” Mike Adams, an editor of Natural News, said. “As a shocking new study has graphically shown, GMOs are the new thalidomide. When rats eat GM corn, they develop horrifying tumors. Seventy percent of females die prematurely, and virtually all of them suffer severe organ damage from consuming GMO.” Adams says the that humanity will never be safe until GMO manufacturers are locked away safely from the rest of us. Michael Eisen, a journalist on It Is Not Junk, a Biology blog, states the opposite, saying anti-GMO activists are over reacting. “Opponents of GMOs are so sure that GMOs are dangerous that any study suggesting they are safe must have been funded by Monsanto, and any scientist pointing out the holes in their arguments must be an industry shill, “ says Eisen, Organic farms are steadily becoming more prominent in our everyday lives.
“The truth is that humanity will never be safe until GMO seed pushers and manufacturers are behind bars” it’s all natural and I feel that our bodies have evolutionarily adapted to that. That’s the only way we know what we are eating stuff that’s healthy.” In 2011, California almost passed a bill that required the labeling of GMOs and right now,
Whole Foods requires all food sold at the stores to be labeled by 2018. Bottom line, the Anti-GMO movement grows stronger day by day. Very radical ideas squash the more moderate ones; at times both sides of the argument fabricate reasons to oppose each other.
Eisen states that In the anti-GMO universe, it often seems that the best evidence is usually backed by false data. Keith Kloor, a journalist of the Bloomberg, agrees with Eisen, stating that fear plays a large factor in the Anti-GMO movement. “Fear-mongering is rife in the Anti-GMO movement. And it’s irresponsible for mainstream pundits and journalists to enable this behavior the way they do,” Kloor says Kloor says that there is little to no proof that GMOs are a public safety hazard. Jennifer, the writer
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Photo by Grady James
even Organic farming isn’t devoid of GMOs
of the Not Easy To Be Green blog, agrees with this statement but finds problems with the business practice behind them. “I’m discovering that my problem with GMO is not about the actual science at all: it’s about Monsanto’s business practices, lobbying, and seed patenting. No, I don’t think making farmers dependent on a corporation is a good idea. Yes, I think the Diamond V. Chakrabarty decision that ruled that genes could be patented was a disaster,” Jennifer, , says. Josh Schonwald, a journalist, agrees with Jennifer’s argument about shady business practices, but he expands by stating that GMO technology can be useful to us as a people.
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The vast majority of the so-called Big Six’s genetically engineered crops support Big Food and the industrial food system —i.e.: commodity crops (corn, soy, canola) and massive-scale monoculture (anathema to the values of the food movement). Even more unsettling, the Big Six seed giants are also the Big Six agrochemical giants. A huge percentage of the GE crops that have been introduced are herbicidetolerant Which means the seed maker/agrochemical companies use bioengineering to sell a lot of weedkilling chemicals. But there’s another side to the story that most foodies don’t seem to know. There’s vitamin A fortified golden rice that was created by a Swiss public scientist that will be made available royalty-free in the Third World and could save thousands of children from blindness and death.
There’s the genetically engineered papaya that was bred in a lab by a government-funded scientist with less than $100,000 in grants and was released for free to Hawaiian farmers. There’s a crop scientist in Australia who is trying to break the corporate juggernaut on genetic engineering by introducing the “open source” approach common in the software world to crop sciences, “Schonwald says. Schonwald states that GMO tech is part of a humanitarian cause, but the ever-growing population of the ,,,,,, movement still remains in opposition to the developing technology. “I feel like there is a growing movement of people. Just look at our small farm, we had thirty people out here today, that’s allot. That’s pretty incredible,” Jamie said.
Find your place in the final frontier!
Donate. Visit. Learn.
Future Fuels
Photo by: The USAF
There are many
energy sources here on Earth for us to use, so why do we continue to use up all our non-renewable sources? Sometime soon we will have to find a mixture of renewable sources to power our large energy needs. Sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and more are all possibilities for the future of energy generation. Each has its own pros and cons, here are some of the more prevalent possibilities of energy generation.
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The sources will be rated based off their efficiency, cost, and reliability. Geothermal power plants are an alternate energy source open to us. How does it work? Basically there is a plant situated over a hot part of the Earth’s crust(at least 350 degrees Fahrenheit), the plant sends water down to be heated into steam. The steam is separated from the leftover water, the steam is sent to generate energy and the leftover water is reused. Some pros for geothermal energy are: very little emissions, limitless energy, underground
facility possibilities(that are extremely efficient), easy to set up, and available is many places. Some cons are: ideal sites far from populated areas, energy loss due to the transportation of the energy, and high water usage. Due to those pros and cons geothermal plants would usually be used for large projects outside areas with a energy grid already set up. There are future possibilities of geothermal plants under the ocean fueling off-shore projects. The area where the Earth’s crust is the thinnest is under the ocean, so the extra heat would allow for more efficient energy generation
Futurescape gives this energy source an: A
Solar energy is also a practical source, solar panels use photovoltaic in their solar cells that make up the panels. Photovoltaic basically converts solar radiation into a flow of electrons that can be used as a direct electric current. Some pros to solar energy are: limitless energy, very clean(no emissions), can be used in most places, good to power local areas or residential housing. A few cons to solar energy are: not available at night or cloudy days, high cost(currently), and is not efficient at powering projects on the city or industrial scale. If solar is a major
source of energy in the future it will probably be in residential areas unless there is a major breakthrough in solar efficiency.
Futurescape gives this energy source a: B
Nuclear energy has amazing potential, there are many types such as fusion, fission, and possibly cold fusion. Fission is what is currently used for nuclear power plants and what will be discussed
Futurescape gives this energy source an: A Story by: Jake Oakes
Photo by: Mike Gonzalez
A geothermal plant in Negros Oriental, Philippines
here, cold is neglected by the scientific community due to its inconsistency but it involves fusion at room temperature, and fusion is what the sun uses. Nuclear energy is basically made by splitting the nucleus of atoms and harnessing the released energy. The type of atom being split us uranium 235, when a neutron is shot into the U235 the neutron is absorbed and it becomes U236. U236 is extremely unstable and causes the atom to fission. Pros: high energy output. Cons: creates nuclear waste.
Sun photo by: Liz Aragon Atom photo by: Liz Aragon Volcano photo by: Liz Aragon
“Greenspace, Leveraging NASA for a Greener Earth” NASA “Key World Energy Statistics” , 2012, IEA “Energy Resources”, Andy Darvill, Sep. 28 2012, Andy Darvill’s Science Site
“How Gerothermal Energy Works” Union of Concerned Scientists, Dec. 16 2009, UCS “Nuclear Energy” Oracle, Sep. 14 2011 , Think Quest “How Does Solar Power Work?” Susannah Locke, Oct. 20 2008, Scientific American
Fermi’s Paradox
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Humanity has started to dive into the depths of space for the first time, time to explore the stars. Time to start the search for our equal, our alien equal. An estimated hundreds of billions of galaxies, with thousands of millions of stars in each one, surly some of them harbor life other than Earth? Humanity has high powered telescopes and space probes already looking into other planets, yet no other life has been found. Even if a planets like Earth are extremely rare there should be thousands upon thousands of them. So this brings up the question: Where are the aliens? This contradiction between the theoretical abundance of life in the universe, but the lack of evidence to support it is called the
Fermi Paradox. Proposed by Enrico Fermi during a lunch meeting one afternoon in 1950. Ever since Fermi proposed this paradox 63 years ago there has been arguments of solutions to the Fermi Paradox, basically reasons that could have caused the paradox. Take the Zoo Hypothesis as an example that suggests humans are being observed by hidden extraterrestrial life that does not permit us to find them. The time for humanity to explore other possibilities is now. There are hundreds of possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox, but time to back track to the fundamentals how do we know that there should be an abundance of life in the universe. Well to help in this process the equation
Photo By: NASA
An exoplanet discovered by the Keplar Space Telescope, searching for habitable planets.
created by Frank Drake in 1961, called the Drake Equation. This equation calculates the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy in which our civilization could communicate with. The equation, a simple multiplication problem with some complex variables: R* fp ne fl fi fc L. The variable values are the average number of star formations per year in our galaxy, the proportion of stars that have planets, the average number of planets that could support life per star with planets, the proportion of those planets that develop life at some point, the proportion of those planets that develop intelligent life, the proportion of civilizations that develop enough technology to make their presence known, and
the length of time in which those civilizations presence is detectable, respectively. The values of these variables depend on who the solver of the equation, some with a more pessimistic view use smaller numbers and others with optimistic views on encountering alien life use larger numbers. Either way most of the results come out to a guarantee of other intelligent civilizations. So where are they? Some believe that it is highly unlikely that humanity will ever encounter intelligent life for various reasons, take Cooper Goff for example “even if we were to reach the speed of light, which is impossible, we would not be able to go out to the far enough reaches of the universe to find intelligent life. The likeliness is almost nothing.” Goff is not the
“The likeliness is almost nothing”
on the signs that there are aliens are out there. Maybe all the background radio waves that are read are attempts at communication? Or possibly we are simply overlooking things that are technically living we just do not realize it. Not all life has to be carbon-based and need water. • Because of the immense distances in space any alien signals might have not reached us yet, but they are out there. The big problem with this solution:the galaxy is many billions of years old and eventually some ancient civilization would have emerged into a higher tier on the Kardashev Scale and the galaxy would be filled with their probes. • It could be possible that humans are so insignificant to extraterrestrial life that they have to reason to contact us, Earth could be one of millions of civilizations out there not worth talking to. • There are very specific parameters for life to emerge that the galaxy just reached and Humans are the first. • Maybe other species don’t have the drive humanity does, it is possible they do not strive for technology, science, and exploration. What Would Other Intelligent Civilizations Look Like? This is a hard question to answer, or even to theorize about. The basic idea is that there is a scale called the Kardashev Scale that puts
Photo By: NASA
only one with these pessimistic views, Keith Wiley seems to agree “Such civilizations are probably very spread apart. It is even possible we are the only example of a technological capability in the galaxy.” Dr. Wiley’s view however is not the only view, others like Ishan Shah disagree, Shah thinks about how large the galaxy is “Look at how many galaxies there are, how many stars can harbor planets, how many planets can harbor water and are in the goldilocks zone, I think the chances are pretty high that we will encounter an intelligent life form.” Others like John Lambshead believe that humans will find life, but doubt the chances of intelligent life by our standards “I suspect we will find life in abundance but will probably never ever meet intellectual peers. It’s going to be lonely out there,” “I suspect it is the probability of evolving intelligent life’ that is the key variable that governs the Drake Equation: the probability must be close to zero.” On the other hand some believe that if life emerges there’s a near guarantee of it evolving into intelligent life, but that view is not shared by many. Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
There are too many possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox to ever list, and the real solution might be a mix of many solutions listed here, or maybe a whole new idea that was never considered by humanity. Either way there are many published possible solutions. • Extraterrestrial life out there that is observing us in our natural environment, careful not to interfere or let us know they are out there watching, this is known as the Zoo Hypothesis. Why would a civilization contact another and risk catastrophe when they could observe and learn all they want with no risk? • The theory that we are all living in a massive computer simulation, not unlike the matrix, for either learning purposes of the creators or entertainment. This is known as the Universe Simulation Theory. How this relates to extraterrestrial life, maybe the creators choose not simulate aliens. • Another less established but still valid idea is that intelligent civilizations never get to the point in which they could communicate, or they are not at that point for long. This could be because intelligent civilizations tend to die out either form themselves or natural causes like a plague or even a supernova. • Maybe humanity, primitive as some believe, are not picking up
NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder, a hypothetical design for a planet locater.
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The Kepler Space Telescope in orbit.
Photo By: NASA
civilizations into types, type 0, I, II, III, IV, and theoretically V and more. The types on the Kardashev Scale are define by the energy the civilization uses. For example humanity is a type 0 civilization, soon to become a type one if we do not kill ourselves first. If you are a type 0 civilization means that they extract our energy from raw materials like fossil fuels and wood. A type I civilization is capable of colonizing other worlds with stellar scale influence, a type 0 has planetary scale influence. Defined types reach up to IV but V and beyond have been theorized about. So would an alien civilization fit into a category in the Kardashev Scale? Possibly, many varying views exist on whether the Kardashev Scale would be accurate to fit other civilizations, Shah believes that “We predict civilizations by
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the type of energy they harbor, so yes they would most likely fit in [the Kardashev Scale],” but others like Dr. Wiley think that the Kardeshav Scale is inaccurate and that civilizations should be rated based off their knowledge relating scientific theories like gravity and dark matter, or even by their mathematical prowess. Now for the physical alien being itself, some think telescopes should be looking for planets with liquid water in the “Goldilocks zone” of a sun that matches ours. That is a good start but there are problems, who says that life needs to be carbon based, what about silicon based. For all humans know there could be a life form on mars that eats rocks and it is not known because it does not fit what is being looked for. There is also to problem of communication, the reason humans see in the spectrum of light
“Are we alone in the cosmos, cursed by Fermi’s Paradox?” that is called visible light is because humans evolved to see the light that our sun puts off the most, visible light. It is possible another species in another star system evolved to see different wavelengths that they call visible light. Not only is sight a problem but what about talking, aliens could possible speak in such a low frequency or high frequency that a translator machine would have to be used because our ears cannot pick up the noises they make. All in all, David Brin does a good job of summing up this article, “Are we alone in the cosmos, cursed by Fermi’s Paradox?”
Letter From The Editors
Dear valued readers, this magazine intends to give insight into the plausible future of science and technology. Futurescape is meant to be thought-provoking and interesting, we have tried to write about many inspirational figures and ideas. The SpaceX program and NASA provided inspiration, along with David Brin, a scientist and avid futurist author, and Hugh Randolph, an architect. Thank you reader for investing your time in our magazine. We have invested much work into the makings of this magazine. I hope you have a great time reading about the technology of our future.
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