The firstborn hypothesis is a proposed solution to the

Fermi paradox The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. Those affirming the paradox generally conclude that if the conditions required ...

which states that no extraterrestrial intelligent life has been discovered because humanity is the first form of intelligent life in the universe.

Background

There is no reliable or reproducible evidence that

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

have visited

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. No transmissions or evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life have been observed anywhere other than

in the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

. This runs counter to the knowledge that the universe is filled with a very large number of planets, some of which likely hold the conditions hospitable for life. Life typically expands until it fills all available niches. These contradictory facts form the basis for the

, of which the firstborn hypothesis is one proposed solution.

Avi Loeb Abraham "Avi" Loeb (; born February 26, 1962) is an Israeli and American theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where since 2007 he has been Direc ...

, an astrophysicist and cosmologist, has suggested that Earth may be a very early example of a life-bearing planet and that life-bearing planets may be more likely trillions of years from now. He has put forward the view that the Universe has only recently reached a state in which life becomes possible and this is the reason humanity has not detected extraterrestrial life.

Relationship to other proposed Fermi paradox solutions

The firstborn hypothesis is a special case of the

Hart–Tipler conjecture The Hart–Tipler conjecture is the idea that an absence of detectable Von Neumann probes is contrapositive evidence that no intelligent life exists outside of the Solar System. This idea was first proposed in opposition to the Drake equation in a ...

(the idea that the lack of evidence for interstellar probes is evidence that no intelligent life other than humanity exists in the universe) which asserts a time-dependent curve towards discovery. The firstborn hypothesis is also a special time-dependent case of the

rare Earth hypothesis In planetary astronomy and astrobiology, the Rare Earth hypothesis argues that the origin of life and the evolution of biological complexity, such as sexually reproducing, multicellular organisms on Earth, and subsequently human intelligence, ...

, which states that conditions for creating intelligent life are exceedingly rare.

References

{{Extraterrestrial life, state=expanded Extraterrestrial life Search for extraterrestrial intelligence Fermi paradox