Pakistan’s Fermi paradox

Enrico Fermi, an Italian American physicist, was once having a discussion with his fellow physicists while walking to lunch. This was in the year 1950. They were discussing the UFO reports of the time and the possibility of faster-than-light travel. The discussion steered toward the most intriguing question in the world of astrophysics: is there life out there in the vastness of space? The earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the universe, for that matter, about 13.80 billion, according to current understanding of space and time and the general consensus on the details of the Big Bang Theory. In such a long span of time, the belief and the most common sensical argument is that life must have emerged elsewhere in the billions of other exoplanets in the Goldilocks Zone of their host stars as there are hundreds of billions of stars inside each galaxy, which number in hundreds of billions themselves in the observable universe. Given this reasoning, Fermi said, “but where is everybody?”

If intelligent life emerged on other planets that were formed billions of years before the earth then they would have advanced to where they’d have the powers to colonise other planets and even star systems. But somehow, we have not yet seen them or have we?

I was reminded of the Fermi Paradox when I did some re-thinking about the entire cypher story where the allegation has been that America told Pakistan to remove the cricket world cup winner and in return there would be goodies for Pakistan. I also came across the second Intercept story where it was claimed that Pakistan was told to supply arms to Ukraine in return for which Pakistan received the IMF loan pushed by Uncle Sam. I am going to approach all this with a grain of salt as well as some hacks I have learned during years of writing in order to ensure this piece gets published.

The reason Fermi’s question was titled as a paradox was because it made scientists through the decades since wonder if there was indeed ever any intelligent life present in the universe other than earth, provided we continue to self-label ourselves as intelligent beings. Some reasoned that maybe aliens did visit the earth in the ancient past when we were not around or humans were still undergoing the intelligence evolution. Others argued that maybe earth, as this little spec in the night sky, has never amounted to much for aliens to take the trouble of making the interstellar journey just to see this sorry lot. All arguments have intelligent reasoning.

So, if Pakistan did all those things many accuse it of such as removing Shaukat Khanum’s son and supplying arms to Ukraine against its war with Russia, then where are all the goodies for Pakistan? The people are perhaps the poorest in the entire history of the nation. Powering their homes and feeding their families have never been such a daunting challenge for the average Pakistani. Globally as well as domestically there is only hatred and disrespect for Pakistan. Millions are trying to leave the country. Diplomatically, financially and morally, Pakistan seems bankrupt. So, if I may play Enrico Fermi for a moment then I will ask the most logical question: where are the goodies?

Did the goodies visit us and we did not see them? Did the goodies visit us long before we were starving enough to detect them? Did the goodies decide that we were not important enough to be visited? Or maybe, just maybe, there were no such deals struck with the goodies providers? Just as there may not be any intelligent life in the vastness of space, there were probably no deals and goodies ever?

I had to include both arguments. I know you are smart enough to know what the truth is. If you were able to read between the lines, don’t forget to wink at me when you are done reading.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2023.

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