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The Fermi paradox: An approach based on percolation theoryIf even a very small fraction of the hundred billion stars in the galaxy are home to technological civilizations which colonize over interstellar distances, the entire galaxy could be completely colonized in a few million years. The absence of such extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth is the Fermi paradox. A model for interstellar colonization is proposed using the assumption that there is a maximum distance over which direct interstellar colonization is feasible. Due to the time lag involved in interstellar communications, it is assumed that an interstellar colony will rapidly develop a culture independent of the civilization that originally settled it. Any given colony will have a probability P of developing a colonizing civilization, and a probability (1-P) that it will develop a non-colonizing civilization. These assumptions lead to the colonization of the galaxy occuring as a percolation problem. In a percolation problem, there will be a critical value of percolation probability, P(sub c). For P less than P(sub c), colonization will always terminate after a finite number of colonies. Growth will occur in 'clusters', with the outside of each cluster consisting of non-colonizing civilizations. For P greater than P(sub c), small uncolonized voids will exist, bounded by non-colonizing civilizations. For P approximately = to P(sub c), arbitrarily large filled regions exist, and also arbitrarily large empty regions.
Document ID
19940022867
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Landis, Geoffrey A.
(Sverdrup Technology, Inc. Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
December 1, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Lewis Research Center, Vision 21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace
Subject Category
Space Biology
Accession Number
94N27370
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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