What is the Star Trek answer to the Fermi Paradox?

[uniderth]

I think it's safe to assume that the Fermi Paradox existed for earth in the Star Trek universe. So what was the answer to it?

Whether your not you believe Vulcanians and other species were zipping around and colonizing world's prior to 2063; how come humanity hadn't detected these sepcies?

In the context of the Star Trek universe we can throw out the explanations about rare life and/or great filters.

We know that some of it must contain a conspiracy because of episodes like "Little Green Men" and various time travel episodes. There has been contact prior to 2063, but it has been covered up.

There could possibly be some aspect of the zoo hypothesis at play, in that radio and other signals are being intentionally blocked. However, your mileage may vary depending on how much technology you give alien species.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Tim Walker]

Isaac Arthur has discussed the Fermi paradox in a number of his YouTube videos.

 

[Replica Picard]

To me, it seems to be two things:
1. In Trek, civilizations mostly arise in closely related generations that aren't too far advanced or behind each other, and
2. A lot of advanced civilizations have some form of the Prime Directive.
So you're unlikely to be contacted by an advanced civilization before you're more or less on par with them. But only unlikely. We do see situations where the Klingons, for example, conquered primitives, and apparently they were primitives when that happened to them, too. Earth got a bit lucky even with items 1 and 2 above.

 

[eschaton]

I've always held to the belief the seeming lack of any technological civilizations more than a few thousand years old implies that the "galactic travel" phase of species is very fleeting. Basically everyone either dies out or pretty quickly ascends into some sort of advanced energy being, which leaves the Galaxy seemingly unoccupied save for a number of technologically primitive civilizations.

 

[Tim Walker]

Or super civilizations hide themselves. Gary 7s sponsors apparently did this.

 

[at Quark's]

I think the general answer would be an alien Prime Directive by those civilizations who care, and disinterest in Earth / sheer luck on Earth's part by those who don't

To me, it seems to be two things:
1. In Trek, civilizations mostly arise in closely related generations that aren't too far advanced or behind each other, and

Of course, out-of-universe that's because it has the most story telling potential - there are only so many "Gods and primitives" stories you can tell. In universe, rationalising too large differences away may be more tricky, though I've always found http://www.ditl.org/article-page.php?ArticleID=19&ListID=Articles an interesting read on this part.

I've always held to the belief the seeming lack of any technological civilizations more than a few thousand years old implies that the "galactic travel" phase of species is very fleeting. Basically everyone either dies out or pretty quickly ascends into some sort of advanced energy being, which leaves the Galaxy seemingly unoccupied save for a number of technologically primitive civilizations.

Humans were projected by the Organians to reach a status fit for first contact in 5000 years. That'd probably be a status still below what the Organians achieved, but by how much would be anyone's guess. Might already be on their way to become incorporeal super-entities by then. Q is foreseeing this to be happening as well. Then, on the other hand, the Voth are portrayed to be very advanced when compared to Starfleet, yet not that advanced considering they had 65 million years during which to progress. However, Voth society is portrayed as unusually resistant to change.

 

[Christopher]

First off, the Fermi paradox doesn't really apply in Trek, because we know that Earth was visited by a startling number of aliens over the millennia prior to the official "first" contact: the Sky Spirits, the Greek gods, Kukulkan, the Platonians, the Preservers, the Megans, the Skagarans, the Devidians, Guinan, Redjac, the Briori, the Vulcans, Gary Seven's organization (called the Aegis in the tie-ins), the Xindi-Reptilians, etc. Not only have we been frequently contacted by aliens, but they have directly communicated with us and influenced our evolution and history, even if history didn't remember it or recognize it as such.

As for more recent history, we know the Vulcans were a dominant interstellar power in our region for several centuries before contact, and they had a non-interference policy, so it stands to reason that they shielded us from offworld contact or invasion. As for why we couldn't detect signs of all the alien civilizations out there, well, we'd have a hard time detecting warp ships because we wouldn't know what to look for. Also, we couldn't pick up radio communications between civilizations because they use subspace radio, which we don't have the means to detect.

Now, in the 43 years between now and First Contact, we should develop the means to detect biosignatures and technosignatures on nearby exoplanets like Vulcan and Andoria. However, WWIII will be intervening, and that might distract Trek-universe humanity from following up on any promising signatures they do detect.

Humans were projected by the Organians

No way. The Organians made it crystal-clear in "Errand of Mercy" that they couldn't stand any interaction with corporeal beings -- it was intensely painful to them just to have us yammering primitives around them at all. The only reason they stopped the war is because it impinged directly on Organia and they did it to get the noisy kids off their lawn. After all, this was '60s TV when every episode had to stand on its own. Gene Coon specifically worked in an explanation for why we shouldn't expect the Organians to be a continuing presence in later episodes, by making them the most reluctant meddlers possible. They were anything but activists who would've gone around paternalistically protecting other races. Their motives in "Errand" were entirely selfish. (I wish ENT: "Observer Effect" hadn't contradicted this by referring to its incorporeal explorers as Organians. It was only one line, so they could've easily expunged it, or called them Thasians instead, say.)

 

[at Quark's]

^yeah, I agree that they could have easily averted them having be the Organians, I suppose. Feels like a fan-servicey thing to mention them.

But I'll have to assume they are the Organians, as it did creep in into the Holy Onscreen Material. So I'll have to find some way to reconcile the facts.

To begin with, I'm not entirely sure what it is the Organians find so "intensely painful". Even though they literally say 'The mere presence of beings like yourselves is intensely painful to us' and then go to explain they evolved million of years ago 'beyond the need of a physical body', I always had the feeling it was not the mere fact they were corporeals, but their "discordant emotions". Of course I cannot substantiate this.

This combined with their statement from Enterprise that they would have barely 5000 years to prepare could either mean that in 5000 years humanity would be ready for them - whether that meant getting rid of their discordant emotions or becoming immaterial or some other threshold is unclear , just as whether they would expect such 'evolution' to be merely biological or self-engineered- or that in 5000 years, humanity would advance to such a degree the Organians could no longer hide from/evade them and hence would be forced into first contact.

The only reason they stopped the war is because it impinged directly on Organia and they did it to get the noisy kids off their lawn. After all, this was '60s TV when every episode had to stand on its own. Gene Coon specifically worked in an explanation for why we shouldn't expect the Organians to be a continuing presence in later episodes, by making them the most reluctant meddlers possible.

And pretty ineffectual ones at that (achieving to be left alone with the least amount of meddling). They ended up interfering directly, massively and extremely visibly, while, at their level of power, they probably could have made their own planet/solar system system simply invisible, or appear very unattractive, or utterly impregnable without having to endure those corporeal beings and their petty squabbles for days on their soil.

 

[Christopher]

But I'll have to assume they are the Organians, as it did creep in into the Holy Onscreen Material. So I'll have to find some way to reconcile the facts.

In my TNG novel The Buried Age, I said the explorers were a fringe/splinter group that most Organians saw as perverted.

 

[valkyrie013]

In some book's I've read (non star trek stuff) We are in a kind of Rural, backwoods, back water area that isn't really traveled that much either because, there's not much interesting, or in 1 book I've read, The primary transit method is wormholes created by an elder species, but the wormholes only stay open for a short time, then some close, and others open. With the book, a nearby wormhole opened after a few thousand years closed, and it created a nearby easy connection to the rest of the galaxy species, and the earth was.. well bombed.. but contacted.. went kinda badly for us..
Even in Babylon 5, there was no jump gates in this system, we had to wait for the Centauri to just happen by, and we bought the technology..
In another book, some elder species covered our system in some type of cloaking net, where signals can't get out, and signals can't get in.. so, we don't know of anybody, and no one knows of us to stop by.. until we reach a certain level of technology..
Plenty of Ideas on how/why

 

[eschaton]

First off, the Fermi paradox doesn't really apply in Trek, because we know that Earth was visited by a startling number of aliens over the millennia prior to the official "first" contact: the Sky Spirits, the Greek gods, Kukulkan, the Platonians, the Preservers, the Megans, the Skagarans, the Devidians, Guinan, Redjac, the Briori, the Vulcans, Gary Seven's organization (called the Aegis in the tie-ins), the Xindi-Reptilians, etc. Not only have we been frequently contacted by aliens, but they have directly communicated with us and influenced our evolution and history, even if history didn't remember it or recognize it as such.

I'm not sure this explains everything TBH. With so many visits within history, there should have been thousands of visits in prehistory as well. Thus someone should have introduced alien life on earth in the past - some analogue to rats, cockroaches, or even just bacteria which managed to establish itself. Yet we have no evidence to suggest this is any more the case in for Trek's earth than our own.

 

[Replica Picard]

I'm not sure this explains everything TBH. With so many visits within history, there should have been thousands of visits in prehistory as well. Thus someone should have introduced alien life on earth in the past - some analogue to rats, cockroaches, or even just bacteria which managed to establish itself. Yet we have no evidence to suggest this is any more the case in for Trek's earth than our own.

In the Trek universe, I'm not sure that we would have evidence even if it had happened, given that a lot of life in local space apparently had the same origin, would have the same proteins, etc. And squid are pretty weird. I'm not 100% on them having originated on Earth even in the real world.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure this explains everything TBH. With so many visits within history, there should have been thousands of visits in prehistory as well. Thus someone should have introduced alien life on earth in the past - some analogue to rats, cockroaches, or even just bacteria which managed to establish itself. Yet we have no evidence to suggest this is any more the case in for Trek's earth than our own.

Aliens did seed life on Trek's Earth -- see "The Chase." They seeded worlds throughout the galaxy with DNA programmed to produce humanoids like themselves. And presumably other species evolved in parallel as well, which is why we've seen assorted alien animals that look like dogs, horses, birds, etc., and why so many planets have the same kind of trees and grass and flowers. There seem to be plenty of alien analogues of grapes and wheat too, given all the alien types of wine, brandy, ale, and other spirits.

Given that all life in Trek seems to use the same DNA code and is mutually digestible and even reproductively compatible, could we even really tell the genetic difference between a native species and an extraterrestrial one? There are some creatures on Earth so seemingly alien that it's hard to believe they're native, like squids and tardigrades. (And we know there are tardigrade-like aliens in Trek, though on a vastly larger scale than the ones on Earth.)

 

[Replica Picard]

Aliens did seed life on Trek's Earth -- see "The Chase." They seeded worlds throughout the galaxy with DNA programmed to produce humanoids like themselves. And presumably other species evolved in parallel as well, which is why we've seen assorted alien animals that look like dogs, horses, birds, etc., and why so many planets have the same kind of trees and grass and flowers. There seem to be plenty of alien analogues of grapes and wheat too, given all the alien types of wine, brandy, ale, and other spirits.

Given that all life in Trek seems to use the same DNA code and is mutually digestible and even reproductively compatible, could we even really tell the genetic difference between a native species and an extraterrestrial one? There are some creatures on Earth so seemingly alien that it's hard to believe they're native, like squids and tardigrades. (And we know there are tardigrade-like aliens in Trek, though on a vastly larger scale than the ones on Earth.)

Thanks for fleshing out what I was trying to say.

 

[Tim Walker]

I recall something mentioned on another thread-super civilizations may tend to practice a form of Prime Directive towards primitive civilizations such as the UFP.

 

[Ronald Held]

In Star trek it would be something version of the Prime Directive.
In this Galaxy we might be the most advanced technological civilization for a large number of parsecs..

 

[eschaton]

Given that all life in Trek seems to use the same DNA code and is mutually digestible and even reproductively compatible, could we even really tell the genetic difference between a native species and an extraterrestrial one? There are some creatures on Earth so seemingly alien that it's hard to believe they're native, like squids and tardigrades. (And we know there are tardigrade-like aliens in Trek, though on a vastly larger scale than the ones on Earth.)

On one hand, I understand your point, and concur it makes logical sense given what has been shown onscreen. On the other hand, there's been multiple episodes within Berman Trek where it's been shown that alien DNA within a human can be detected easily in sick bay, which really seems to suggest finding an alien-evolved lifeform on Earth wouldn't be difficult.

 

[Orphalesion]

On one hand, I understand your point, and concur it makes logical sense given what has been shown onscreen. On the other hand, there's been multiple episodes within Berman Trek where it's been shown that alien DNA within a human can be detected easily in sick bay, which really seems to suggest finding an alien-evolved lifeform on Earth wouldn't be difficult.

In the 24th century perhaps not, since by that point they have samples of alien DNA, and now what to look for.
But before humans had proof of aliens, there would have been no way to tell whether a strain of bacteria is alien or native. After all, can't find out if it's alien if you don't know the telltale signs. Add to that the possibility that simple organisms such as bacteria likely look very similar, no matter what Preserver-Seeded world they come from and, how are you gonna tell it's alien?
With a more complex organism it would stand out that there's no fossil record, but even then humans might conclude that the fossil record just wasn't preserved and try to fit the organism into existing, terrestrial clades rather than recognize it as alien.

 

[Christopher]

On the other hand, there's been multiple episodes within Berman Trek where it's been shown that alien DNA within a human can be detected easily in sick bay, which really seems to suggest finding an alien-evolved lifeform on Earth wouldn't be difficult.

For a Starfleet-era observer, yeah, but as Orphalesion said (while I was typing this), I'm talking about pre-contact Earth and whether our scientists would be able to recognize whether a life form had a non-terrestrial origin. Particularly one whose DNA and biology are already substantially different from most other life on Earth, as with the examples I cited.

Also, in those episodes, presumably they can detect it because it's not human DNA and thus doesn't belong in a human body. And generally they'd recognize it as alien if it's from a known species. I think Phlox detected some unknown alien DNA in Daniels and another far-future time traveler, but presumably he could tell it was humanoid but not from any known humanoid species. So it's still not relevant to being able to tell whether, say, giant squid are native to Earth or not.

 

[uniderth]

My pet theory is that the "The Chase" aliens claimed to have seeded many planets with DNA coded to create humanoid life forms, but it actually didn't work. The only planet that it really worked on was earth. Then there was another, as yet unknown, civilization that took humans from earth and artificially created hybrids with life on other planets. After this the Preservers took more humans and spread them around.

This would explain why many alien "species" are able to mate with humans. It also explains the extreme phenotype similarities with humans.

Did the "the Chase" aliens' plan work? Yeah, kind of. But not in the way they planned.