There are **100,000 Earth-like planets capable of intelligent life ...
Here's a couple of recent links, somewhat zany, in different direct...
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-American physicist. He was awarded the ...
Travelling to distant Galaxies to meet other intelligent civili...
**Fermi is famous for his guesstimations** and his impressive abili...
### Where is everybody?
*"So there are 100 Earth-like planets in...
The Drake equation provides an estimate of the number of communicat...
“WHERE
I EVERYBODY
A NACCOUNTO FERMI
QUESTI
b
EriM Jon
ABSTR
I
Fermi’s
famouquestion ocentrt debaa bt prev
o fextraterrestriacivilizatioaroduria luncconve
withEm iKonopinskiEdwaTellea nHerbY oi t s u
o f1950Fermi’companioo thad ah aprovaccoo t
incident.
Parto fthecurrentdebateabouttheexistencea nprevaleno extraterre
conc
interstellartravelandsettlement.
1-3I n1975MichaeH aargut h
interst
traw o
b efeasiblefora technologicallyadvancedcivilizatioa nthaa migratwouf it G a
i na fewmillionyears.4Sincethatintervali shorcomparewitt ha go t hGalh t h
concludedthattheabsenceo fsettIerso revidenco theiengineerprojei t S o
Systemmeantthattherearen ocxtraterrestrials.
Newman,Sagan,andShklovski2”5recallthaa legeno scien
say
t hEnrF ea s
thequestion,“Wherearethey?”duringa visit L oAlamodurit hSecW oW o
shortlythereafter.Fermi’squestionhasbeenmentionei severothrecpublicb
historicalbasisfortheattributionhasnotbee
established
Thant t hexcelmemo
HansMark,whohadhearda retellinga t
Los
Alamoi t hearl1950w nowlmoF e
didmaketheremarkduringa lunchtime
conversation
abou195H icompanw e
E m
Konopinski,EdwardTeller,andHerbertYorkA lthrehavprovidaccouo t inci
W ebeginwithKonopinski:“ Ihaveonlyfragmentarrecollectiabot hocca. . . I
d ohavea fairlyclearmemoryo fhowthediscussioo extra-terrestrg ostarted
Enrico,Edward,HerbYork,andI werewalkingt Iunca FullLodg
“WhenI joinedtheparty,I foundbeingdiscusseevidenaboflyisaucT h
immediatelybroughtt om yminda cartoonI h arecentlseei t hN eYork
expla
whypublictrashcansweredisappearing
from
t hstreeto N e
Yor
CitT hN Y op a
weremakinga fussaboutthat.Thecartoonshowewhaw aevidena flysausiti
thebackgroundand,streamingtowardit,‘littlgreemen(endoww iantencar
thetrashcans.MoreamusingwasFermi’scommentthai w aa verreasonthes ii
accountedfortwoseparatephenomena:t hreporto flyinsaucea w ea
t h
disapp
o fthetrashcans.Thereensueda discussiona t whethet hsaucecousome
exc
t
speedo flight.”
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T hN eYorkMagazI n
— --
Tellerremembers:“Myrecollectiono ft heveninvolviFer. . . i cleb o npar
T obeginwith,I wasthereattheincident.I believi occurrshortaftt he o t w o
a visito fFermit otheLaboratory,which
quite
possiblmighhavb edura sum
“ IrememberhavingwalkedoverwithFerma nothert t hFullLod
f o
lunW h
w ewalkedover,therewasa conversationwhicI believt hav
bee
quibria supe
o na subjectonlyvaguelyconnectedwithspactravelI hava vagrecollecw hm
notb eaccurate,thatw etalkedaboutflyingsaucera nt hobviostatemt ht
fly
saucersarenotreal.I alsorememberthatFermexplicitlraist hquesti
a n
I t hh
directedi ta tme,‘Edward,whatd oyouthink?H oprobabi i
tha
witht hn et y e
w eshallhaveclearevidenceo fa materialobjecmovinfastthalighI remet hm
answerwas10-6.’Fermisaid,‘Thisi smucht olowT hprobabili m ol it per
(thewellknownfigurefora Fermimiracle.)”
Konopinskisaysthath edoesnotrecallt hnumericavalue“excet ht hcha
rapidlya sEdwardandFermibouncedargumentso feacothe”
Tellercontinues:“Theconversation,
according
t m memorw ao nvaguconn
withastronauticspartlyo naccounto fflyingsaucermighb d ut extraterrepeo
(hereI believetheremarkswerepurelynegative)partlbecauexceedligvelow o
makeinterstellartravelonedegreemorereal
“WethentalkedaboutotherthingswhichI d n orememba nmayapproxie i
o fu ssatdowntogetherforlunch.”
Konopinskia nYora rquicertt ht hw e
o n
fouro fthem.
2