00:00You know what is one of the biggest mysteries of science and our universe?
00:04Why haven't aliens contacted us yet? It's a question that has fascinated humanity for decades.
00:10And now a NASA scientist may have a surprising answer. Dr. Robin Corbett, an astrophysicist at
00:16NASA's Gorbatch Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, presents a fresh perspective
00:23called the radically mundane theory. According to Dr. Corbett, extraterrestrials haven't reached out
00:29because they may have simply gotten bored of trying to find us. He suggests that alien
00:35civilizations might be only a little more advanced technologically than we are, a bit like having an
00:42iPhone 42 instead of an iPhone 17. In other words, they aren't god-like beings with faster than light
00:49travel or cosmic technologies beyond our imagination. Dr. Corbett explains that these civilizations may
00:56have reached the technologically limits of what they can do with exploration. Because sending out
01:02powerful space probes or signals across the galaxy requires immense energy and potentially millions of
01:08years to get a response. They may have lost interest and stopped trying. Imagine sending a message and
01:16waiting millions or even billions of years. The motivation to keep this up could simply vanish.
01:22He points to a nearby exoplanet Proxima Century B, located four light years away as a hopeful
01:28candidate for life. But at today's spacecraft speeds, it would take humans roughly 100,000 years to get
01:35there, a truly mind-boggling distance. This raises the question of how aliens could even hope to
01:41communicate or travel to other worlds when these distances are so vast. Popular culture over the years
01:48has painted a vivid picture of aliens as highly advanced, sending out swarms of robotic probes or
01:54blasting powerful light beacons across the cosmos. Movies like ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
02:00imagine slow-moving spaceships visiting Earth. But Dr. Corbett's research suggests that this is more
02:06science fiction than reality. Our cosmic neighbors may simply lack the motivation or ability to engage in
02:13huge projects like interstellar colonization or long-distance communication. This idea directly
02:19addresses the famous Fermi Paradox, the big contradiction where many scientists estimate the
02:25likelihood of alien civilizations to be high, yet we have no concrete evidence or contact with them.
02:31Dr. Corbett's radically mundane theory argues that there may be some technological civilizations
02:37scattered in the Milky Way, but none with the extraordinary tech to create easily detectable
02:43astroengineering marvels or send enduring signals. Yet, not everyone fully agrees. Professor Michael
02:49Garrett from the UK warns that this theory might reflect too much of a human-like boredom onto the
02:54cosmos, doubting that all intelligent life would be so disinterested. There are other hypotheses as well.
03:01Some suggest that aliens find humans too dangerous to approach, while others believe that
03:06extraterrestrials have evolved into forms beyond our recognition. Even as scientists debate these
03:13ideas, Earth-based researchers continue to try contacting other worlds by sending radio and
03:19light signals, akin to sending emails across space. Physicist Mark Buchanan stresses that using light
03:26signals might be the best bet since they travel fast and remain unchanged, allowing other civilizations to
03:34recognize them as messages from intelligence. So, while we don't have aliens dialing our number yet,
03:39ongoing research and theories like Dr. Corbett's help us understand the challenges and wonders of cosmic
03:45communication. Maybe extraterrestrials are closer to us in spirit than we thought, or maybe they are just
03:52a little bit bored. Stay curious and keep looking up because the universe still holds many mysteries
03:58waiting to be unraveled.
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