Are they here yet?

The Fermi Paradox reminds me of one of my early childhood birthdays. I woke up at five in the morning. No one was there and no one was singing or bringing breakfast in bed. I was convinced they’d all forgotten about my birthday and started crying.

After a while, my mom came in asking why I was crying and I told her I thought I wasn’t going to get a birthday. She told me I had to sleep a couple of more hours because no one else was up yet.

The Fermi Paradox unfortunately does not take the size of the universe into consideration. Nor the time spans involved when dealing with those sizes. Asking “Where is everyone?”, is a little bit like a kid asking “Are we there yet?”

“No honey, the journey has just started. Our mark on this universe isn’t even a coffee break in age…”