# The Fermi paradox

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1950
- authors: Enrico Fermi: "Where is everybody?"

**Statement.** If intelligent life is common, why do we see no sign of it?

The galaxy is old enough for a spacefaring civilization to have spread across it many times. Proposed answers range from life being rare, to civilizations being short-lived, to our searches being too narrow. Biosignature searches in exoplanet atmospheres are the first measurements that could constrain the answer.

Posed 1950, Enrico Fermi: "Where is everybody?".

## Related problems

- The original curation links this problem to [The origin of life](/wiki/Problem:origin-of-life.md); the argument for the link has not been written yet.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Fermi paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox)

[Life beyond Earth](/wiki/Space:life-beyond-earth.md) · [Cosmos](/wiki/Continent:cosmos.md)

## Relations

- related to [origin-of-life](/wiki/Problem:origin-of-life.md) — The original curation links this problem to The origin of life; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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Revision 113, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/04-cosmos.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:fermi-paradox?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:fermi-paradox {source, summary, base_rev: 113}.