- If you ask a person on the street whether 1 is a prime number, they’ll probably pause, try to remember what they were taught, and say “no” (or “yes” or “I don’t remember”). Or maybe they’ll cross the street in a hurry. On the other hand, if you ask a mathematician, there’s a good chance they’ll say “That’s an excellent question” or “It’s kind of an interesting story…”
- Fermi paradox (Wikipedia)
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 for abiogenesis are as permissive as the available evidence on Earth indicates, then extraterrestrial life would be sufficiently common such that it would be implausible for it not to have been detected yet.