What Donald Trump Teaches Us About the Fermi Paradox

eports of U.F.O. sightings were commonplace in the 1950s. The C.I.A. recently came clean, on Twitter, concerning its role: “Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ‘50s? ” Though not entirely—some of the hoaxes of flying saucer. They wound up inspiring a cartoon, depicting with some small town’s municipal trashcans, that would go down in scientific lore: The cartoon—along with the thought that, given the universe’s old age, E.T. should be commonplace—came up in conversation between four theoretical and nuclear physicists, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, walking to lunch. That’s when one of the scientists, Enrico Fermi, suddenly (and famously) exclaimed, “Where are they?” Edward Teller, another one of the scientists, , “The result of his question was general laughter because of the strange fact that in spite of Fermi’s question coming from the clear blue, everybody around the table seemed to understand at once that he was talking about extraterrestrial life.” The Fermi paradox was born.