<p>I think you're question is incorrect, and what you should be asking is "Which of these is plausible", in which case, all of them are. I think you are also missing other options:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>There is alien life, who have already visited, but have not made formal contact with us, for any one of a number of reasons.</p></li>
<li><p>We are the alien life, who has forgotten how we arrived here, and doesn't know how we get back.</p></li>
<li><p>Some of us are alien life, and we just keep a low profile.</p></li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-09T17:08:55.740Z
I wouldn't say the question is "incorrect". It's entirely possible that one of the three options listed in the question is the correct answer. The problem is that we simply don't have enough information to answer it.
Keith Thompson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-09T14:35:24.733Z
2014-12-09T14:35:24.733Z
iantresman
<p>Perhaps alien contact is so mundane and commonplace that you dismiss it for lack of congruity with Hollywood presentations. Documentation of visitations and encounters is as old as writing and history. I'll give you just one example, among many. I like to read regularly from a collection of accounts which for some cultures has been around for so long, and has been so central to these cultures, that they just call it The Book, or The Holy Book. They began calling it this in Latin and Greek, and over time, that word has morphed into the word bible. This "Holy Bible" as these human cultures call it describes interactions of various kinds with a super-being who claims to have created this entire world, and us. It also describes interactions with other beings possessed of various great powers (technologies perhaps) who certify that they represent this same super-being. All of these accounts are given in the most sober and earnest language by men who were known by their peers to be very honest and forthright.</p>

<p>Astonishingly, these texts even describe detailed instructions for communicating with this super-being using nothing more than the biology that this very super-being engineered into our bodies. Over the centuries, many of your own ancestors may have even written of their own encounters with this "God". I know mine have. In fact, if you read these texts, you can make direct contact yourself by following the instructions, and certify for yourself that His claims, as wild as they may seem initially, are in fact true. The copyright of His creation is, in a sense, stamped right into the nature of the created in that this communication mechanism which He built into our nature does in fact function as described. Amazing, but true.</p>

<p>But anyway, are you sure that Astronomy is the right stack exchange for this inquiry?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-09T17:26:07.473Z
2015-01-05T22:47:57.507Z
2015-01-05T22:47:57.507Z
Mark Bailey
<p>Lack of contact could be due to one of three things ?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Interstellar space travel is just not possible .</p>

<ol start="2">
<li><p>There is no other Alien Life in the Galaxy .</p></li>
<li><p>There exists Alien life and interstellar space travel is possible but with tens of billions of Planets in our Galaxy, the odds of Aliens detecting Earth is like picking the winning lottery numbers .</p></li>
</ol></li>
</ol>

<p>Which of these three is the correct answer ?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T21:45:21.747Z
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about aliens and is speculative.
HDE 226868
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T22:14:08.890Z
I seriously doubt that anyone can answer this. Nobody knows.
Keith Thompson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T22:21:38.553Z
Just search this stack for the tag fermi-paradox. Or google "Fermi paradox".
Florin Andrei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-09T01:46:04.603Z
possible duplicate of [How should one rationally deal with the issue of space travelling alien civilizations?](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8148/how-should-one-rationally-deal-with-the-issue-of-space-travelling-alien-civiliza)
Jerard Puckett
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-13T15:36:44.677Z
There might be many other reasons which just do not occur to us. At least one that actually occurs - we are too different from each other to recognize each other as anything contactable or even alive. Or a one-sided version of the same: they might recognize us as contactable but we are not intelligent enough yet to notice them at all.
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე
<life><extra-terrestrial><fermi-paradox>
Lack of contact with Aliens
Peter U
# Lack of contact with Aliens

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-08)

Lack of contact could be due to one of three things ?

1. Interstellar space travel is just not possible .

   2. There is no other Alien Life in the Galaxy .
   3. There exists Alien life and interstellar space travel is possible but with tens of billions of Planets in our Galaxy, the odds of Aliens detecting Earth is like picking the winning lottery numbers .

Which of these three is the correct answer ?

**Tags:** life, extra-terrestrial, fermi-paradox
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This question appears to be off-topic because it is about aliens and is speculative.  
> **username_2**: I seriously doubt that anyone can answer this. Nobody knows.  
> **username_3**: Just search this stack for the tag fermi-paradox. Or google "Fermi paradox".  
> **username_4**: possible duplicate of [How should one rationally deal with the issue of space travelling alien civilizations?](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8148/how-should-one-rationally-deal-with-the-issue-of-space-travelling-alien-civiliza)  
> **username_5**: There might be many other reasons which just do not occur to us. At least one that actually occurs - we are too different from each other to recognize each other as anything contactable or even alive. Or a one-sided version of the same: they might recognize us as contactable but we are not intelligent enough yet to notice them at all.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-12-09. Score: 3

I think you're question is incorrect, and what you should be asking is "Which of these is plausible", in which case, all of them are. I think you are also missing other options:

1. There is alien life, who have already visited, but have not made formal contact with us, for any one of a number of reasons.
2. We are the alien life, who has forgotten how we arrived here, and doesn't know how we get back.
3. Some of us are alien life, and we just keep a low profile.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I wouldn't say the question is "incorrect". It's entirely possible that one of the three options listed in the question is the correct answer. The problem is that we simply don't have enough information to answer it.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2014-12-09. Score: -1

Perhaps alien contact is so mundane and commonplace that you dismiss it for lack of congruity with Hollywood presentations. Documentation of visitations and encounters is as old as writing and history. I'll give you just one example, among many. I like to read regularly from a collection of accounts which for some cultures has been around for so long, and has been so central to these cultures, that they just call it The Book, or The Holy Book. They began calling it this in Latin and Greek, and over time, that word has morphed into the word bible. This "Holy Bible" as these human cultures call it describes interactions of various kinds with a super-being who claims to have created this entire world, and us. It also describes interactions with other beings possessed of various great powers (technologies perhaps) who certify that they represent this same super-being. All of these accounts are given in the most sober and earnest language by men who were known by their peers to be very honest and forthright.

Astonishingly, these texts even describe detailed instructions for communicating with this super-being using nothing more than the biology that this very super-being engineered into our bodies. Over the centuries, many of your own ancestors may have even written of their own encounters with this "God". I know mine have. In fact, if you read these texts, you can make direct contact yourself by following the instructions, and certify for yourself that His claims, as wild as they may seem initially, are in fact true. The copyright of His creation is, in a sense, stamped right into the nature of the created in that this communication mechanism which He built into our nature does in fact function as described. Amazing, but true.

But anyway, are you sure that Astronomy is the right stack exchange for this inquiry?


---

