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Fermi's paradox, extraterrestrial life and the future of humanity: a Bayesian analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2016

Vilhelm Verendel  and
Olle Häggström
Vilhelm Verendel*
Affiliation:
Department of Energy and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden
Olle Häggström
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Great Filter interpretation of Fermi's great silence asserts that Npq is not a very large number, where N is the number of potentially life-supporting planets in the observable universe, p is the probability that a randomly chosen such planet develops intelligent life to the level of present-day human civilization, and q is the conditional probability that it then goes on to develop a technological supercivilization visible all over the observable universe. Evidence suggests that N is huge, which implies that pq is very small. Hanson (1998) and Bostrom (2008) have argued that the discovery of extraterrestrial life would point towards p not being small and therefore a very small q, which can be seen as bad news for humanity's prospects of colonizing the universe. Here we investigate whether a Bayesian analysis supports their argument, and the answer turns out to depend critically on the choice of prior distribution.

Keywords

Bayesian analysisbiogenesisextraterrestrial lifeFermi paradoxgreat filter
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 14 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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