Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Apr 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001aps..apr.v9010h&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, April 28 - May 1, 2001 Washington, DC Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol.
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), popular for years in astronomy courses, is also an excellent topic in physics literacy courses. Space travel, relativity, scientific methodology, pseudoscience, and physics-related societal topics can all be taught within the SETI context. Fermi's question (see Kuiper and Brin, Extraterrestrial Civilization, AAPT 1989, p. 67) is especially appropriate. Enrico Fermi, speculating in 1950 on the number of technological civilizations in our galaxy, concluded that we should have been visited long ago and many times over. Thus one might ask, paraphrasing Fermi, "Where is everybody?" Fermi concluded that either interstellar travel is impossible, or is always judged not to be worth the effort, or technological civilization doesn't last long enough for it to happen. Whether one agrees with Fermi or not, the great physicist's third suggestion is a sobering perspective on the sustainability of Earth-based civilization.
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