Extraterrestrial

New theory proposes that aliens simply can't be bothered visiting us

By T.K. Randall
October 15, 2025 ·  56 comments

Image: Illustration of TRAPPIST-1 b
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI), T. P. Greene (NASA Ames), T. Bell (BAERI), E. Ducrot (CEA), P. Lagage (CEA) / CC BY 4.0 (adapted) The question of whether we are alone in the universe remains one of the biggest philosophical conundrums of our time. While it seems almost inconceivable that our civilization is alone in the cosmos, the fact still remains that we have yet to see any evidence to the contrary.

The Fermi paradox, which highlights the contradiction between the likely existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the fact that we have still never encountered any, seems to suggest that either there are no aliens out there, that they have simply never found us, or that they are extremely rare.

But what if the real explanation is something a lot more mundane ?

According to a new paper by the University of Maryland's Dr Robin Corbet, the reality may be that super advanced technology simply doesn't exist and that alien civilizations may peak at a technological level not much more advanced than our own.They may have expended a great deal of resources exploring space, visiting other planets and trying to find evidence of other civilizations, but after spending centuries on this, they eventually lost interest and simply had no further desire to pursue such an endeavor.

As such, the galaxy may be full of slightly more advanced alien civilizations that are simply bored of scouring the cosmos for other inhabited worlds and now simply focus on their own affairs.

This "radical mundanity" theory has been met with some skepticism, however, with other scientists arguing that this idea unrealistically assigns human-like apathy to alien civilizations.

As things stand, however, we simply have no way of knowing one way or the other.

Source: The Guardian | Comments (56)

Tags: Alien, Extraterrestrial