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Are we alone in the universe?

Vithal C Nadkarni, ET Bureau Apr 7, 2012, 02.20AM IST

The famous physicist Enrico Fermi once asked during lunchtime, "Where is everybody?" He wasn't referring to his fellow workers but to their extraterrestrial counterparts! He was alluding to one of the great unresolved mysteries of astrobiology: are we alone in the universe? And if we are not, where are the other intelligent beings? Why haven't our paths crossed yet?

Also, if intelligence is not such an unlikely or improbable prospect - this is called the Mediocrity Principle: just look at us! - it must surely have risen elsewhere in our 10-billion-year-old galaxy long before we came along.

Hence Fermi's tongue-in-cheek question: why have we not met ET yet? Is it because ET's interstellar travel is too sluggish? Or is it a matter of some inbuilt implosive instinct? Can we ever bring back extinct ETs?

In contrast, the Chariots of the Gods perspective developed by Swiss hotel-manager-turned-author Erich von Daniken accounts for the current absence of aliensby pointing to the past: they were there!

Daniken's ancient astronaut hypothesis says thanks to periodic contacts with extraterrestrials, humans were able to achieve quantum leaps in technology! By that token, we are only temporarily stuck in our search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It's only a matter of time and enlightening contact with ET (pun intended)!

A more 'exotic' argument looks upon humans as aliens in fleshly disguise. This sounds similar to the theory of recognition of one'sdivine nature espoused by Kashmiri Shaivite masters such as Utpaladeva!