PPA 8: The Fermi Paradox, Fine-Tuning, and the SSA

[This is the eighth piece in my series on the Parametric Process Assumption (PPA), a new model of anthropics. You should start here if you are just seeing this for the first time. The previous piece is " Temporal Consistency and Texas Sharpshooting ." TLDR: The Fermi Paradox is easily resolved by realizing the universe is gigantic. This means that there are a huge number of possible worlds where life is very very far apart, despite the fact that it also abundant throughout the universe. If all you know is that you exist and that the universe is big and random, then the SSA, contrary to popular belief, is sufficient to conclude that life in the universe is abundant. The SIA, on the other hand, adds an additional bias on top. The next piece is " Putting it all Together ."] Big and Sparse I confess that I’ve never really understood the Fermi Paradox. Or at least, I never understood why everyone always seemed so surprised by it. If you haven’t heard, the Fermi Paradox is the apparent contradiction that, due to the vast age of the universe and the (seemingly) high probability of alien life, we should be observing signs of intelligent alien life all around the universe, and yet we don’t.