Speculative Fact #206: The Great Silence

Our sun is but one star in a galaxy of hundreds of billions. Our galaxy is but one in a universe of hundreds of billions. If there is such a thing as intelligent alien life, there is a statistical probability that the number of intelligent lifeforms are astronomically high. And yet, if that number is high, where are the signs of intelligence?
            Named the Fermi paradox after the physicist Enrico Fermi, the implications are damning. Assuming that intelligent life exists, what can explain the apparent absence of any form of intelligence in the observable universe?
            A chilling prospect is that something is out there culling the numbers. What kind of intelligent alien agencies exist in your story? Are there some cruising the universe for signs of life and then wiping them out? Could it be that all alien life is extinct or endangered…according to some vast plan?

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