fermi's paradox

In the prologue David Kestenbaum and Ira Glass the story behid Fermi's paradox, which is essentially there is intelligent life in space, then why haven't they reached out or sent a signal? Why is there no evidence supporting intelligent life out there? How this came up was a bunch of physicists were discussing this at a lunch and Fermi, the person, said, "Well where are they?" (meaning the aliens). This idea made David Kestenbaum think we are alone in the universe and he explains this makes him sad.

"Act 1: I Think We're Alone Now" really goes into why David Kestenbaum got so sad when he talked about this. He says he brought it up to his coworkers and family but they really did not take him seriously until the podcast. They also talk to Melissa Franklin who is a physicist. She finds that this thought is not sad and is less concerning than other problems. She says, "compared to seeing all the polar bears die, this is not sad." They also talk to Paul Horowitz who's career is looking for intelligent aliens at Berkley. He explains that even though Fermi's paradox is thought provoking he does not believe in it so he doesn't feel sad.

I think the reason that they included all three of the parts of the podcast in this episode as one is because this paradox is very thought provoking. This makes it worthwhile for the viewers to stay and listen to the whole this. You get to see different smart physicists react to this idea. The connecting factor was addressing these thoughts that are often too complicated to think about, and you get to see experts give their opinion.

If I were to talk to my parents about this I think the biggest question i would have is, Do you want to be other forms of intelligent life out there? The thought of this kind of scares me, because the way technology works is they could only be 50 years ahead of us technologically, but that is leaps and bounds compared to where we are at now.

I don't feel scared that they have not been discovered because that makes me rest a little easier.

My favorite question that Rosie asks is, "OK, so, what is life? Why?" Even thoughit seems simple enough, it is the same question humanity has been trying to answer for as long as we have been alive. This is the question that leads to humans having religion, and for hundreds of years people have had very strong opinions on what they think the answer is. Wars have been fought over this question, and Rosie, a child, is asking it.