What is the Star Trek answer to the Fermi Paradox?

[BillJ]

I'd say there was no Fermi Paradox in the Trek universe, or if there was, it was quickly debunked in the early-21st century at the latest.

 

[eschaton]

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.

I've said in the past if I were in charge of a retcon of Trek, I'd have the major alien races (Vulcans, Klingons, etc) be literal genetically modified humans created by the Iconians and seeded on various worlds around 200,000 years ago. It helps to explain why seemingly everyone can interbreed.

 

[Orphalesion]

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.

Well the story presented in Chase, while it only makes limited sense, yes, would also explain why the birospheres of other planets aren't mutually poisonous to the various alien species.(Humans can walk around Vulcan without problems and be exposed to the various organisms and bacteria there, Klingons can visit Earth without protective gear etc.)
And why hybridization between appears to be relatively easy (though there's a lot of conflicting information and implications in the shows as well as the various novels as to exactly how easy it is.)

 

[eschaton]

Well the story presented in Chase, while it only makes limited sense, yes, would also explain why the birospheres of other planets aren't mutually poisonous to the various alien species.(Humans can walk around Vulcan without problems and be exposed to the various organisms and bacteria there, Klingons can visit Earth without protective gear etc.)
And why hybridization between appears to be relatively easy (though there's a lot of conflicting information and implications in the shows as well as the various novels as to exactly how easy it is.)

My understanding from astrobiology is it's presumed that it generally speaking would be totally safe for humans to walk around on an alien world, presuming it had otherwise earth-like conditions. It's very unlikely any native life would be able to infect us, and due to differences in the way natural selection worked, it's unlikely that anything would be immediately highly toxic/cause an allergic reaction.

However, its quite likely that basically all life forms would be completely indigestible (since they could use different sugars, proteins lipids, etc) which would mean we'd need to bring all of our own food, either to eat or to grow. The latter in particular could be a problem, as for example a simple earth plant like wild strawberries might be the ultimate weed, since it would be totally inedible and have no pathogens to attack it.

 

[valkyrie013]

why many a novel has the ship Irradiate a large swath of the planet, killing any native life and bacteria so that we can go in and plant our own stuff, and not worry about native weeds etc. from bothering our food.
But honestly.. I don't find the "Incompatible" thing to be a big problem, we digest everthing to get glucose out of it, while we might not be able to Digest everything.. but would take something out of native food.

 

[Orphalesion]

My understanding from astrobiology is it's presumed that it generally speaking would be totally safe for humans to walk around on an alien world, presuming it had otherwise earth-like conditions. It's very unlikely any native life would be able to infect us, and due to differences in the way natural selection worked, it's unlikely that anything would be immediately highly toxic/cause an allergic reaction.

However, its quite likely that basically all life forms would be completely indigestible (since they could use different sugars, proteins lipids, etc) which would mean we'd need to bring all of our own food, either to eat or to grow. The latter in particular could be a problem, as for example a simple earth plant like wild strawberries might be the ultimate weed, since it would be totally inedible and have no pathogens to attack it.

Alright, but again we are talking about species that are, apparently, so compatible that, for example, Dukat can have a half-Bajoran daughter without even trying (though again that tends to vary between species and between canons).

 

[Christopher]

I've said in the past if I were in charge of a retcon of Trek, I'd have the major alien races (Vulcans, Klingons, etc) be literal genetically modified humans created by the Iconians and seeded on various worlds around 200,000 years ago. It helps to explain why seemingly everyone can interbreed.

If I could reboot Trek from scratch, I'd set it thousands of years further in the future, after humans had colonized many worlds and diverged into multiple subspecies through evolutionary or engineered adaptation. I'd also reinterpret some aliens as nonhumanoids -- maybe Klingons would look something like the thing Worf devolved into in "Genesis," and Cardassians would be fully reptilian. Of course, that would preclude any half-human hybrids with those species.

My understanding from astrobiology is it's presumed that it generally speaking would be totally safe for humans to walk around on an alien world, presuming it had otherwise earth-like conditions. It's very unlikely any native life would be able to infect us, and due to differences in the way natural selection worked, it's unlikely that anything would be immediately highly toxic/cause an allergic reaction.

That depends. As I understand it from past worldbuilding research, viruses are dependent on their hosts’ genetics to replicate, and are thus only dangerous to organisms of the same genetic origin; so viruses from another planet would only be dangerous to you if your planet and theirs were panspermically descended from the same origin, and even then it would take quite a while for the viruses to mutate into a form infectious to your species. (And of course, in Trek, most biospheres share the same panspermic origin.)

But from what I've been told, bacteria and similar microbes simply use their hosts as nutrient sources, and can thus be dangerous to any species of compatible biochemistry. Even if they have completely different genetic molecules, they'd still be made of CHON and could be fed on. In general, if you can survive on a planet’s food, its microbes can survive in your body.

Conversely, so I gather, the less likely a planet’s microbes are to infect you, the more likely its biochemistry is to induce an allergic or toxic reaction. At least, Poul Anderson portrayed alien biochemistries as dangerously allergenic, though maybe his scientific assumptions have been discredited.

There's also metallicity to consider. A world richer in heavy metals could be a toxic environment for humans, while one scarcer in them could cause mineral deficiencies (though that would be fixable with supplements).

 

[uniderth]

That depends. As I understand it from past worldbuilding research, viruses are dependent on their hosts’ genetics to replicate, and are thus only dangerous to organisms of the same genetic origin; so viruses from another planet would only be dangerous to you if your planet and theirs were panspermically descended from the same origin, and even then it would take quite a while for the viruses to mutate into a form infectious to your species. (And of course, in Trek, most biospheres share the same panspermic origin.)

But from what I've been told, bacteria and similar microbes simply use their hosts as nutrient sources, and can thus be dangerous to any species of compatible biochemistry. Even if they have completely different genetic molecules, they'd still be made of CHON and could be fed on. In general, if you can survive on a planet’s food, its microbes can survive in your body.

Conversely, so I gather, the less likely a planet’s microbes are to infect you, the more likely its biochemistry is to induce an allergic or toxic reaction. At least, Poul Anderson portrayed alien biochemistries as dangerously allergenic, though maybe his scientific assumptions have been discredited.

There's also metallicity to consider. A world richer in heavy metals could be a toxic environment for humans, while one scarcer in them could cause mineral deficiencies (though that would be fixable with supplements).

I've had similar thoughts. But something I didn't think about until.rceently was fungi. Apparently that stuff is EVERYWHERE and we would definitely end taking it to other planets. So I wonder how much of an effect our fungi would have on other planets. And how much of an effect their fungi would have on us.