Fermi Paradox, Yet Another Hypothesis

The Fermi Paradox describes the confusing fact that we don't have made contact with alien civilizations despite there being gazillions of galaxies, stars and planets in the universe and we don't have a reason to assume that Earth is extremely special.

As Fermi is reported to have put it: "Where is everybody?"

For an explanation, Wikipedia lists over 20 hypothesis, one of which is the Zoo Hypothesis whereby aliens avoid us similar to how people avoid wild animals in a zoo: to not disturb them or to not get harmed.

I would like to add an additional twist of the Zoo Hypothesis: assume, contrary to our current best physical theories, instantaneous communication (IC) is possible.

According to what we know, transmitting information requires transmitting energy. The limiting speed is the speed of light, which is boringly slow considering the distances in the universe which can be billions of light years.

But if we assume that

• we can transmit information without the need to also transmit energy and
• this can be done without time delay, i.e. instantaneous,

the Fermi Paradox could be explained as follows: nobody barks at a dog.

Put another way:

Once an alien civilization learns about IC, they tune into the cacophony of inter-galactic communication and have no reason to emit slow moving electromagnetic waves for communication or travel physically around the universe.

There is so much to learn and communicate that it is a waste of time trying to reach life forms, like humans, which are somewhat intelligent but did not learn the IC trick yet. Just wait a bit and they'll figure it out. And if not, who cares.

There are two interesting conclusions if the above is true:

1. The Fermi Paradox is a hint that IC is possible.
2. We are not far from finding out. If it would take ages from inventing radio communication to figuring out IC, we again would have to expect gazillions of alien civilizations lighting up the electromagnetic spectrum.