Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2024

ASTRO PUBLISHING MAY-JUNE 2024 26 of years old would know how to make itself invisible to our instru- ments. This scenario represents one of the possible answers to the well- known Fermi paradox and is known as the “zoo hypothesis.” In this zoo, our role is that of animals caged in a large biopark (the Earth), with which it is forbidden to interfere in any way. The zoo hypothesis presupposes, first of all, that whenever the condi- tions for the existence and evolution of life present themselves, life ap- pears. Secondly, if intelligence is a favorable factor in the evolution of animal species, there are likely countless ETCs in the universe, the vast majority of which are older and more advanced than ours (which, in fact, is decidedly in its infancy). Just as documentary makers of the ter- restrial animal world carefully avoid interfering with the dynamics of Nature, more advanced ETCs would, in the same way, avoid intervening in the evolutionary paths of more primitive ETCs (such as ourselves). The zoo hypothesis is decades old and has been reformulated several times by various authors. From time- to-time, new works come out that address the topic from different points of view. Among the latest, we would like to mention that of Ian A. Crawford (Professor of Planetary Sci- ence and Astrobiology at the School of Natural Sciences and the Center for Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birbeck College) and Dirk Schulze-Makuch (Professor of Planetary Habitability and Astrobiology at the Technical University of Berlin, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, and Washington State University), which appeared in Nature Astronomy with the title “Is the apparent absence of extraterrestrial technological civi- lizations down to the zoo hypothe- sis or nothing?”. In a nutshell, the YES, OF COURSE... BUT WHAT HAVE YOU BUILT LATELY? I’M GONNA NEED TO SEE SOME UNIDENTIFICATION. WE’RE IN LUCK. HE SAYS THEY DON’T REQUIRE PROOF OF INSURANCE, AND THERE’S NO COPAY FOR THI SPROCEDURE. FOLKS,YOU’VE BEEN VERY GENEROUS, BUT DON’T YOU HAVE ANY REQUESTS OTHER THAN “FLY ME TO THE MOON?” AT HOME, I’M THE GUY THAT TAKES OUT THE TRASH. HERE I’M A GOD... BEST PLANET EVER! WELL, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT ON THE MOTHER SHIP?