A Solution to the Fermi Paradox: The Solar System, part of a Galactic Hypercivilization?

1 Introduction This talk is about the possibility that the Solar System belongs to the territory of a hypercivilization spanning our galaxy or a large region of it. I will start introducing the Fermi Paradox (why we do not see aliens around?) and some of its solutions. Then I will present my own solution which includes two proposals called the Subanthropic Principle and the Undetectability Conjecture. This solution states that, at present, all typical galaxies like ours are already colonized by very advanced technological civilizations spread through large regions or the whole galaxies, many of them containing primitive subcivilizations like ours. After discussing some consequences of this solution for our planet and our civilization I will make some comments on recent, very popular theories in the scientific community of Particle Physics and Cosmology. These theories, known as 'brane worlds', assume that our visible Universe with three space dimensions is embedded in a much larger Cosmos with more space dimensions. Therefore it would be most natural if other universes would also exist located along the extra space dimensions. As a result, these theories open up enormous possibilities regarding the visitation or colonization of the Solar System by alien civilizations, strengthening the Fermi Paradox. Finally, in the appendix I have included some questions and answers that came up during this Forum. Teller and other colleagues brought up the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFO's) while having lunch. This topic was very popular at that time. After a while, when they had changed subjects Fermi suddenly asked: Where is everybody? Performing fast mental computations, Fermi had reached the conclusion that alien civilizations should have been around visiting Earth for many thousands or millions of years. Therefore, why we do not see them? This is the Fermi Paradox. Although Fermi never explained how he made his computations, nor gave an estimate of the number of civilizations which should have visited Earth, he had to rely on arguments like these: In our galaxy there are thousands of millions of stars much older than the Sun, many of them thousands of millions of years older (in the 'habitable zone' of the galaxy they are on average one thousand million years older [1]). Therefore many civilizations must have arisen in our galaxy before ours and a fraction of them must have expanded through vast regions or even through the whole galaxy. Some other arguments pointing in the …