Where Are All The Extra-Terrestrials??? Don't Fear The Paradox!!! 

Fran is being open minded about this and that is refreshing.

I've lain on my back on countless camping and astronomical expeditions and thought exactly this while staring at the boundless sky full of potential Suns. We just can't hear them. I love you Fran. Keep on keeping on.

if any non-human, sentient technological civilizations are watching this video....please let us know in the comments section. Gotta be worth a try.

I've been on this exact same line of reasoning for well over a decade now and to hear it in words from another person boggles my mind and sort of comforts me more than I thought. Thanks Fran for sharing your thoughts ❤️

Fran poking the hornet's nest one more time for good measure :) Go Fran.

I love your videos Fran, they get the little grey cells working overtime. With the Drake equation, I think it needs a few more parameters to be taken into account. One is the fact that if you remember that we have only had "radio" for about 120 years, and that radio waves travel at the speed of light, only those advanced civilisations that are within the radius of 120 light-years would be able to receive our transmissions. I have seen it represented on a computer screen that if you put a picture of the milky way on your screen, our 120 year radio bubble would occupy one pixel on the screen. It makes me feel very insignificant when I view it that way. Another parameter is that civilisations really only advance when there is (usually) ecological pressure to do so. If a planetary system is very stable and has life on it, unless there is pressure it will stay as it is for a very long time unless random evolutionary events (cosmic rays, the odd meteor, etc) force change. I may be wrong but I don't think the Drake equation takes this "evolutionary pressure" into account. The third item I would add to it is the fact that any advanced civilisation would have to be at the same technological point in its evolution as ours is at the same time. If you think back to the 1970's, digital radio was a pipe dream. Now its everywhere. If an alien civilisation was only 50 years behind ours they would not be able to interpret our digital radio signals with their analog receivers. And if they are more advanced than us, they may have found a more efficient way of encoding their signals that we haven't thought of yet, and maybe that's why we can't hear them. Keep on doing videos, you are keeping my brain young. Plus greetings from Australia.

Keep the topic of extraterrestrials up! 👽

I'm really enjoying seeing you work through all of this. Keep going, there are answers to be had and real scientists like you need to keep asking questions.

Fran, wow! A spectacularly well thought out critical analysis and powerful challenge to the Drake equation along with a potential resolution to the fermi paradox all wrapped up into one concise and rock solid argument. Amazing! And that fission, not radio, serves as our interdimensional beacon and that fission, not radio, is what advertises our presence to our neighbors, whoever or whatever they are, is as profound as it gets. And at the risk of playing Nostradamus here, I will predict that your analysis, particularly with regard to the interdimensional aspect of our technological beacon will be paramount in explaining the apparent growing number of unexplained UAP cases we are seeing around the globe and may also fundamentally change our understanding of physics and perhaps consciousness. And to think I subscribed to your channel for the radio and electronics content (which I love too)---but what a bonus this was. Love what you do and what you are about. So thankful for this content. Thanks, Fran!

Those "Pulsar sounds" remind me of my childhood family trips driving to the Jersey shore on Rt 72, a concrete slab road with expansion gaps.

When you talk about extraterrestrials , I'm all ears.

“The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Damn, I love this episode. I will be here for your next UFO document review. This is going to be exciting.

Great to see this. Here's my food for thought: The greatest problem in searching for extraterrestrial life is, we can only search for life as we know it. We are trapped in this box of thinking. Example I told my son several years ago; "go to my tool box and find me the tool I need. I don't know what it looks like, what it does, or where in the toolbox it is. Just find it." I think we are struck with the same thing when searching for life in the cosmos. We are limited to thinking life exists only as we know it. We need to think way outside of the box. My conclusion is that life is abundant in the cosmos, just not as we know it. Call it the "Darman hypothesis" lol.

Fran is precious. Like her curiosity and excitement and genuine wonder could make me cry

Another great, sensible, clear and well-reasoned video! Thanks Fran.

The regular terrestrials are enough trouble. No need for "extra" ones.

I love that you emphasize the primitiveness of our technology, compared to the technological potential of other civilizations. Perhaps we are the most primitive civilization of all, that's why they don't invite us to their parties.

Yes I saw your original video.. I think you took some flack but I thought you were accurate and brave. Greetings from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Wow an open minded scientist, how fantastic. We need more of you Fran, well done.

Fran, so modest. That video had over 1 Million views ! That’s actually why I subscribed to your channel, I loved it that much.

We need more educated discussion like this! I really enjoyed this chat! Thank you

Extraterrestial races with interstellar travel capability do not use technology so primitive as radio waves.

Fran Blanche, doesn’t matter what the content of the video she makes is, her and her video deserves a like. Fran! Take my money!

If “get down to the noise floor” isn’t the greatest disco song title I have never heard then I don’t even know what this is all about.

Fran, you are one of the most authentic people I can think of. Truly a joy to engage with. Thank you.

"And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'Cause it's bugger all down here on Earth" (MP MoL)

When a pig falls in love with a frog, it's called the "Kermi Paradox" and it always confused me as a child.

The Fermi paradox is actually that the human mind can be simultaneously brilliantly creative and desperately narrow. In a feat of irony, Fermi unknowingly embodied this by making his statement.

I'm not a scientist, but I've been tirelessly fascinated by science my whole life. I love to hear big picture thinking like this because I feel as if a love of curiosity has been sucked out of the broader scientific community, and cynicism has taken over. Science is supposed to be opposite of that, curiosity drives science. We need more scientists that aren't afraid to ask questions and investigate the unexplained.

glad you went viral. now i can see you insightful videos.

The Drake equation was originally written on the back of an envelope at a dinner with colleges. It was later picked up for the cover of a convention brochure making it memorable. Keep looking up.

I'm not a scientist but I would assume an advanced "civilization" WOULD NOT be using radio..

“Beam me up Scotty. No sign of intelligent life on this planet.”

My question is why the vastness of time and the miniscule percentage of that we have existed for isn't taken into account - I mean what is the probability that one of those technological civilisations exists at the SAME TIME as ours?

Great talk. Loved the Guided by Voices tee, awesome band.

They can easily be found at one of my family functions. I assure you, most of my in-laws aren't human.

It's like fish in the open ocean saying, "If there are billions of people in the world where are they all? Sure, some fish may have seen one, but . . . "

Superb monologue ... Super captivating ...

Aliens found us first. I'll NEVER forgive Academia for dismissing this.

Fran you're such a likable person. I really enjoy watching, listening and learning from you.

Ms. Fran, You are a great communicator, expressing practical, understandable essays on complex facts and mysterious things; plus, you have a very attractive countenance which makes you even more entertaining and fun to watch. Sincere thanks. John Grazier

That UFO video was really the boost your channel needed. Brought us to you and boosted the algorithm. Glad it wasn't a one hit wonder, quality back catalogue.

I love ya Fran, please keep discussing this topic in whatever capacity interests you, because it is fascinating to so many of us.

The Fermi Paradox was also discussed in "The Expanse", in the episode where Adam Savage had a cameo.

I note the WOW signal! But never to be repeated. And I was never convinced the SETI was a viable search mechanism. Fran put into words what I felt was intuitive 25 years ago. Thanks!

Fran, I see you as Jodie Foster from the movie "Contact". Question, if we actually did come in contact with an extraterrestrial civilization and were given the chance to be the first human to make contact, would you do it? 🛸👽🙋🏼‍♀️

I love the ending you hit it out of the ball park. I know exactly were you were going with this and you nailed. The universe and all we think we know about it is not as it seems. People over simplife what our reality really is. But just look up one night and you will see an infanate universe with infanate possibilities.

It's a human assumption that ET must be like us. What if ET is multi-dimensional and communicates using energy waves we cannot detect?

As a technical ham operator I thought about the chances of hearing radios signals would be slim pickings due to the low power of radio signals generated, most radio signals are very narrow bandwidth, many lower frequency transmission is also bounced off the layers of gasses in the earth's atmosphere because of the gasses being ionised, so, most signals stay inside the globe and this would also bounce signals from the outside too, some signal will leak but it will be highly antenuated. You are also correct about the inverse square law, but other factors can change things too such as the layers of gas and space-time can also change the frequency of the signal, when ham operators do analogue EME (earth moon earth) communications they have to receive on a slight offset because of the frequency shift, even when communicating with the ISS there is a frequency shift albeit very small its still there, this would also be a problem sending long distance radio signals from planet system to system especially at the speed both planets are traveling! Fran, you touched on laser light being a way of communicating more efficiently using less power, well not so, its about the same to be honest, inverse square law still applies to light too and laser lights are very powerful but in a very focused area, not much different using a satellite dish antenna for transmission, no real side lobes and nothing transmitted on the back either, hower like a laser, as the distance goes from the source the beam patterns spread out and becomes wider, this is where inverse square law still applies, if sending a signal using open air will also antenuate over distances to the point it is in the cosmic background noise, trying to aim this at a single planet in any system would be problematic as the speed we both are travelling, also the speed of light over the long distance to and from the planet system we aiming it at is no longer in the same location. Now my theory if one day it could be done for long distance transmission, this would have to be done both transmitting and received in space, a way to pulse a large fission reaction to create a "carrier" that is very wideband and powerful enough to pick out of the cosmic background noise, the basic could be used to send what we call CW (carrier wave also known as morse code) however both planets will need to understand what is being sent more so than what is being sent to actually be able to communicate as it would be a different language and I'm sure our alphabet would be totally different too lol

Thank you for this awesome, coherent, and totally understandable explanation!

Sagon in a conversation with me gave me the greatest quote ever: "Question everything".

Thank you so much. You helped to get my brain started this morning.

I just watched your “Coping with bullying & abuse” video and I’m kinda stunned. I had no idea and I never would’ve guessed. I hope that you consider that a compliment; I’m saying that you do *not* “look weird” or “off.” You appear exactly as you feel inside 🙂. And I wouldn’t go outta my way to say that if it weren’t true (cuz I’m not super sensitive to that struggle. I’m not mean, but I’m generally just like “do wtvr you want. I don’t care what people do - live and let live.” So I’m also not especially sensitive to people struggling with their identity, nor do I let it affect how I treat them, for better or worse. I guess some people might consider that ‘mean,’ but I hope not to be :-). Anyway, I think you’re lovely and charming ❤️.

Pilots, astronauts, and military who spend a lot of time staring at the sky: "We see UFOs!" Scientists sitting in a room staring at a radio: "We can't seem to find any UFOs!"

I saw a professor say that they use radio waves to search because they are keeping alien scientists in mind. I have always said that alien civilizations may have a form of communication that we may not have discovered yet. These different points made by fran really cemented that notion. Radio is literally the most inefficient way to do this as I thought.

Spot on Fran.

Came for the GBV shirt, stayed for the science.

I really appreciate your logical deductions on this subject. Stay safe and grounded Fran and thank you.

You are one of the most sensible people on RU-vid. Keep it up.

My alien friend calls it 'Fermi's folly'.

In a few years I'll be tuning in to watch Fran disassembling a UFO and trying to figure it out.. can't wait!

The extra dimensions hold all the answers, I say there's no doubt about it.

The Cosmos series along with the Connections series should be available on a full time basis for all students to get some real depth in science and the history of technological inovations. Thanks for your presentation and for putting these oherwise complex themes into a perspective that is far easier to understand and contemplate.

Even in Star Trek they'd stopped using radio waves.

On point Fran. Anyone who misses the 'old days' of shortwave radio i.e. Radio Netherlands, etc. knows all too well that in the grand scheme, medium and shortwave radio only exist in a very narrow window of time, if at all in some extraterrestrial equivalent . So while looking for E.T. radio signatures in the big sky isn't a waste of time, it's probably a waste of time. Personally, I think the future of research into the 'Internet' of the universe is most promising in the gravitational field.

My favorite physics techie that I never had ❤️

" would be an awful waste of space" From the movie contact I'll bet it's one of your favourite movies it is one of mine. The Genius of Carl I find it very refreshing that you are willing to entertain areas that might draw negative attention to you. It seems to be the basis of many fore-thinkers. It would be interesting if you critique the movie contact scientifically. It was just so wonderfully creative

Just saw this video in my sub box and got super excited. Thank you Fran!!! Buckle up for the storm lmao.

Hey, Fran. One question I never see asked when considering the fermi paradox is why should we assume any intelligent life would try to send a radio signal to us? What would give them the goal of shouting at us with radio signals? Would their transmission even reach us? You mention the inverse square law, but do we even know if it is possible to send a radio communication across the distance of a galaxy? How much power would that actually take? Maybe too much? I'm not an engineer, but it seems like there would be a MASSIVE factor of noise interference when traversing that distance. I agree with you that radio seems antiquated to any civilization that has seemingly conquered either gravity or dimensional space somehow. Anyway, cool channel! I like that partscaster btw! Rock on!

Loving this aspect of your channel, Fran. ✌🏻❤️🇬🇧

I certainly agree that fishin is a technological signature of all great technological civilizations. Great point Fran

I really enjoyed this video. Thank you Fran.

As you are talking on here, I feel like I had a dream about this, and yes! I totally agree! Also, lots of people have had contact, but this is a great dialog about sensible reasons that we are not getting connected to other species through radio! Love you!

When you held up Carl Sagan's book you looked about 12.

Great Job Fran. I remember seeing the series. During that episode an Adult told us that if any off planet civilization was discovered, then things would get ugly. Looting, pillaging, envy and murder similar to what the Spaniards did. He further told us that he thought the idea of finding an off planet species was some form of a delusion that children should not be told.

Well done Fran, for trying to educate your watchers

Fran: Once again another great video. I remember Cosmos very well. You mentioning Jocelyn Bell and the work she did on pulsars shows how well you do your research. Jocelyn Bell got very little credit for her work until some years later

I love the extra-terrestrial/ufo stuff lately, Fran! Very interesting.

Aside from the interesting speculation on life in the universe, I noticed that cool t-shirt. I finally read it says guided by voice.

“If aliens exist, where are they?”…maybe, just maybe, the aliens are on their own sheet of music doing things we can’t possibly understand….playin’ by their own rules.

Those dishes makes me wonder about a Nostudamus line "Through an object, as to enlarge the eye, it will make crops dry up"

"You had your time, you had the power You've yet to have your finest hour Radio (radio)..."

Well said!! We often see ourselves as an "advanced" civilization, but in reality such a view is highly debatable. Humanity is just starting and we are, no doubt, far behind the technological advancements of other civilizations.

Exactly my thoughts Fran, holy crap . Great video!

There is also one point that I would like to make that nobody seems to talk about. The Fermi paradox is based on the assumption that advanced civilizations use vast amounts of energy, enough to be visible from Earth. But that assumption may not be true. An advanced civilization most certainly has not only low mortality rate, but also low birth rate, which results in a stable population and a sustainable society in a planet with finite resources. In such conditions there is no need to colonize other stars, or even other planets. With a small, stable population, sustainable society and plenty of resources, their only goal would be to make their lives better and more comfortable. No need for an interstellar or even an interplanetary colonization. At most they would just send robotic probes to other stars for scientific curiosity. And because their energy comsumption would be small, they would not be visible from Earth. The assumption that advanced civilizations inevitably develop into interplanetary or interstellar civilizations is most certainly false. Any civilization that grows exponentially is doomed to extinction since such a growth is not sustainable.

There is a advanced civilization in the ocean... that's how little we know.

You have to distinguish between resolution, which can be achieved by interferometry and sensitivity which needs a vast collecting area. To achieve very great sensitivity is much more difficult (and expensive) than boosting resolution.

Is there life in outer space? Wait, we're in outer space!

I still have a TI-30 calculator like that. It's incredible that they still work.

Fran, "they're right under our noses"..... Robert Bigelow

I want to propose something I call the internet gamer equation. Its an equation that shows when two or more conscious beings that don't know anything about each other get into a conversation without being able to see each other face to face they are far more likely to argue and fight than be friends. We can't even be nice to strangers on our own planet, how are we going to start our relationship with another species without it turning into a war? I am more worried about what WE do next when contact is finally made.

Should be looking more for something like digitally encoded ultra high frequency phase shift light sources as opposed to primitive radio!

This is one of my new favorite channels.

Its a bit like why cant we hear a conversation across a noisy room with the music up loud. Then factor in time and say why cant we hear a conversation held in a full room with music on that happened 40 years ago.

I could listen to her talk about this stuff forever. Her ideas are so fresh to me.

Love your work fran .

Ever thought we may be the first? This is why I love this paradox. If I had to speculate, I would say we are either alone in our galaxy or they are at a similar technological level to ourselves and neither of us have been pumping signals into space for long enough to have received them.

There's been an uptick in UFO sightings since the explosion of the first atomic bomb ( from what I gather). It must be some very high frequency emitted from the explosion that visiting extra terrestrials were able to acknowledge.

The primary flaws in the Fermi Paradox is that it assumes that advanced ET technology will: 1. be detectable by us; 2. that advanced civilizations will use radio for an extended period of their existence (as opposed to a very short period); 3. That advanced civilizations will require and pursue energy (aka resources) on an ever-increasing scale, which in turn might lead to stuff we can (theoretically) see (ie Dyson Spheres). These assumptions, incidentally, are foundational for what SETI is up to. But there's a problem with all of them. 1. Our means of detecting things and phenomena at great distances are severely limited, not only because most of our searching methods are ground-based, but also that our understanding of the universe is far from complete. In other words, highly advanced ET civilizations are in all likelihood active in ways we cannot detect, because our technology only proceeds in step with our comprehension of not only physics in the traditional Newtonian/Einsteinian sense, but also with respect to quantum theory, where we're still at baby-steps in understanding. 2. Radio is only useful within star systems, and even there it loses it value the greater the distance between points. Useful communication will probably be found via quantum states of entanglement, etc. And we're certainly not able to detect anything like that. So advanced civilizations will use radio for a very short period (one we're not yet out of), making detection even rarer. Try listening to FM radio on a AM-only radio, by way of analogy. 3. Assuming a better understanding of quantum physics, advanced ET civilizations probably have no need for grand system-wide technology for accessing energy: all the energy they need is drawn at a quantum level. And once at that level, the civilization effectively becomes post-scarcity, and the need for expansionist ideology or justifications for spreading out through a galaxy in a perennial hunt for raw resources, simply disappears. Even interim states of expansion would likely be abandoned fairly quickly. Now, sure, I'm presuming a lot in my objections, but in all honesty, truncating the parameters to conventional physics presumes even more. Cheers.