It's a quiet night, and you're staring up at the stars. You can't help but wonder—are we really alone in the universe? The cosmos is vast, ancient, and teeming with possibilities. Yet, despite decades of searching, we haven't found a single sign of extraterrestrial life. How could this be? Let’s take a journey through four theories and a little cultural surprise that might explain this cosmic mystery.

Welcome to Further Records, the podcast where you can stay One Step Ahead with your English practice. I’m your host, Forest.

This question we just asked is the Fermi Paradox. In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi asked, "If the universe is infinite and ancient, where is everybody?" Essentially, the Fermi Paradox highlights the contradiction between the high probability of alien life and the lack of evidence for it. In other words, the numbers say aliens should be out there, but we haven't seen a single one. But why?

Well, there are some theories. Starting with the Great Filter theory. This one suggests that there’s some kind of barrier that prevents life from advancing to a stage where it can communicate across the stars. This filter could be behind us, meaning life is incredibly rare, or it could be ahead of us—implying that most civilizations destroy themselves before they reach the stars. -Let's hope it’s the first one!

Another theory is that alien civilizations are out there, but they’re deliberately hiding from us. This idea, known as the “zoo hypothesis,” suggests that advanced civilizations might be observing us without revealing themselves—much like we observe animals in a zoo. Maybe they’re waiting for us to reach a certain level of development before making contact.

What if the problem isn’t that aliens aren’t trying to reach us, but that we’re not listening in the right way? The Dark Forest theory suggests that extraterrestrial civilizations might be using communication methods we haven’t even considered yet—like quantum signals, or messages hidden in cosmic rays. It’s possible we just don’t have the right technology to detect them.

Lastly, there's the idea that alien life has already visited Earth, but we just don’t recognize it. Some suggest that extraterrestrials might exist in forms we can’t perceive, or that they’ve integrated into our society in ways we can’t detect. It’s a wild theory, but when it comes to the unknown, anything’s possible

Although all of these 4 theories are pretty detailed let’s not forget about the topic’s core: Human curiosity. Whether aliens exist or not we are the ones who have always questioned the idea of being alone in the universe and the best way to portray this is through cultural and personal experiences. 

For example: Did you know that in Cordoba, Argentina exists a town obsessed with alien life? Capilla del Monte, a small town of 10,000 inhabitants, located north of Cordoba is usually visited by thousands of people from all over the world in search of ufological life experiences. And their inhabitants love it! 

They actually have such great cultural appropriation because they have kept the legacy of spreading the words on their experiences and also some of them have made a living out of it. When you walk through the main streets it might be possible that you encounter yourself with souvenir stores where they sell quartz, incense, books on how to harmonize the chakras and figurines of a round-eyed alien doll drinking fernet, a traditional drink in the area. Even the sign that welcomes people to the town has the figure of a green, bald and big-headed extraterrestrial that perches on the sign!

Maybe stuff like this is the reason aliens haven’t contacted us…

You’ve been listening to Further Records, a podcast by Further Corporate.

In this episode, we used certain phrases associated with today’s topic! Have you heard of these before?

• Paradox - A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself.
• Deliberately - On purpose
• Conceive - To imagine or come up with an idea.
• We just don’t recognise it - in this sentence, “just” means “simply”
• Spreading the word - This phrase means to tell as many people as possible about something
• When it comes to - This idiom means “with regards to”, for when you want to speak about a specific subject

To keep boosting your English journey, you can listen to more of our episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also review the vocabulary on our YouTube channel, Further Corporate.

If there’s any other topic you’d like to know more about, send us a message on instagram! It’s @furthercorporate.

See you next time!

Sources:

https://www.muyinteresante.com.mx/espacio/1833.html 

https://astrobiology.com/2024/04/is-artificial-intelligence-the-great-filter-that-makes-advanced-technical-civilisations-rare-in-the-universe.html 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/zoo-hypothesis.htm 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dark-forest-theory-alien-life 

https://www.unilad.com/technology/space/aliens-real-visited-earth-missed-them-science-287320-20240308 

MUSIC AND SFX:

Notre Dame - Intermezzo, by Brevard Music Center Orchestra, licensed under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Music: Savour The Moment by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com