The Fermi Paradox
The universe is ancient, enormous, and full of ordinary stars much like ours. So where is everybody?
1950 (Fermi's remark), 1975 (Hart's argument)22 min read
American economics and futures studies
Robin Hanson
1959
Economist at George Mason University, known for prediction markets, futarchy, and The Age of Em. His 1998 essay "The Great Filter" reframed the Fermi question as a search for the improbable step between dead matter and a visible interstellar civilisation, and pointed out the uncomfortable corollary: the more easily life arises, the more likely the filter lies ahead of us.