
The Fermi Paradox: Here Comes Nobody
01/29/25 • 48 min
EPISODE 129 | The Fermi Paradox: Here Comes Nobody
If we are not unique as a species, an intelligent one that builds civilizations, then there must be lots and lots of other civilizations out there in the galaxy and the rest of the universe beyond. But if so, where the hell is everybody?
That’s the question at the heart of the Fermi Paradox. And this has kicked off a chain of reasoning and speculation that crosses disciplinary boundaries, and lets us start to envision, not just what might be out there, but where we ourselves want to go as a global civilization.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb!
SECTIONS
- 02:54 - First we feel, then we fall - The Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equation, the Wow! Signal, space is big
- 09:22 - End here. Us then. Finn, again! - Abiogenesis, the Pulse-Transient Theory of Industrial Civilization, musings on the galactic situation
- 18:48 - They lived and laughed and loved and left - The Great Filter, Von Neumann probes, the Berserker Hypothesis; loud, quiet and grabby aliens; the Dark Forest Hypothesis, the technological singularity, the Jevons Paradox and induced demand
- 27:16 - The cross of your own cruelfiction - The Zoo Hypothesis, the Planetarium Hypothesis, the Deathworld Scenario, A Field Guide to Aliens, Calculating God and other science fiction, the Aestivation Hypothesis
- 34:34 - Three quarks for Muster Mark! - The Kardashev Scale, Sagan's addition, megastructures, Barrow's anti-Kardashev scale, Galántai's variation, the Urbanization Hypothesis, Kardashev's six scenarios, what to look for
- 43:04 - He is cured by faith who is sick of fate - They're here, Greer and UAP folks, MJ-12, the SETI Paradox, we are looking, light is fast but has a limit
- 47:38 - Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear - Joseph Campbell and where do we go from here?
- Music by Fanette Ronjat
More Info
- Finnegans Wake glosses
- A skeleton key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell
- ‘It never ends’: the book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake in The Guardian
- Finnegan’s Wake at 80: In Defense of the Difficult at LitHub
- Why Finnegans Wake Is Better than Ulysses
- Fermi’s Paradox on This American Life
- SETI Institute website
- Humanity Responds to 'Alien' Wow Signal, 35 Years Later
- This Is How We Know There Are Two Trillion Galaxies In The Universe in Forbes
- The Great Filter: a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox in Astronomy
- A list of solutions to the Fermi Paradox on It's only chemo
- Are We Alone in the Universe? Article looking at the Drake Equation
- How Many Aliens Are There? A look at the Drake Equation
- Drake Equation: Estimating the Odds of Finding E.T. on Space.com
- Template for calculating answers to the Drake Equation on PBS
- The Olduvai Theory: Toward a Re-Equalizing of the World Standard of Living
- The Berserker Hypothesis: The Darkest Explanation Of The Fermi Paradox
- Grabby Aliens website
- D...
EPISODE 129 | The Fermi Paradox: Here Comes Nobody
If we are not unique as a species, an intelligent one that builds civilizations, then there must be lots and lots of other civilizations out there in the galaxy and the rest of the universe beyond. But if so, where the hell is everybody?
That’s the question at the heart of the Fermi Paradox. And this has kicked off a chain of reasoning and speculation that crosses disciplinary boundaries, and lets us start to envision, not just what might be out there, but where we ourselves want to go as a global civilization.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb!
SECTIONS
- 02:54 - First we feel, then we fall - The Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equation, the Wow! Signal, space is big
- 09:22 - End here. Us then. Finn, again! - Abiogenesis, the Pulse-Transient Theory of Industrial Civilization, musings on the galactic situation
- 18:48 - They lived and laughed and loved and left - The Great Filter, Von Neumann probes, the Berserker Hypothesis; loud, quiet and grabby aliens; the Dark Forest Hypothesis, the technological singularity, the Jevons Paradox and induced demand
- 27:16 - The cross of your own cruelfiction - The Zoo Hypothesis, the Planetarium Hypothesis, the Deathworld Scenario, A Field Guide to Aliens, Calculating God and other science fiction, the Aestivation Hypothesis
- 34:34 - Three quarks for Muster Mark! - The Kardashev Scale, Sagan's addition, megastructures, Barrow's anti-Kardashev scale, Galántai's variation, the Urbanization Hypothesis, Kardashev's six scenarios, what to look for
- 43:04 - He is cured by faith who is sick of fate - They're here, Greer and UAP folks, MJ-12, the SETI Paradox, we are looking, light is fast but has a limit
- 47:38 - Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear - Joseph Campbell and where do we go from here?
- Music by Fanette Ronjat
More Info
- Finnegans Wake glosses
- A skeleton key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell
- ‘It never ends’: the book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake in The Guardian
- Finnegan’s Wake at 80: In Defense of the Difficult at LitHub
- Why Finnegans Wake Is Better than Ulysses
- Fermi’s Paradox on This American Life
- SETI Institute website
- Humanity Responds to 'Alien' Wow Signal, 35 Years Later
- This Is How We Know There Are Two Trillion Galaxies In The Universe in Forbes
- The Great Filter: a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox in Astronomy
- A list of solutions to the Fermi Paradox on It's only chemo
- Are We Alone in the Universe? Article looking at the Drake Equation
- How Many Aliens Are There? A look at the Drake Equation
- Drake Equation: Estimating the Odds of Finding E.T. on Space.com
- Template for calculating answers to the Drake Equation on PBS
- The Olduvai Theory: Toward a Re-Equalizing of the World Standard of Living
- The Berserker Hypothesis: The Darkest Explanation Of The Fermi Paradox
- Grabby Aliens website
- D...
Previous Episode

Estimated Prophets: Nostradamus & Cayce
EPISODE 128 | Estimated Prophets: Nostradamus & Cayce
Even though almost none of the things that prophets say will happen actually do, we still persist in believing in the capability anyway. We do not like to change out minds very much. Two of the biggest prophets that still hold sway today over Western culture are Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce, and we’ll take a look at each one in turn.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb!
SECTIONS
- 02:35 - Built to Last - Nostradamus' career and style, Virgilianised syntax, Les Prophéties and the Mirabilis Liber
- 06:53 - Aoxomoxoa - Into the 20th century, Erika Cheetham, "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow", some prophecies
- 12:48 - Blues for Allah - The King of Terror wears a blue turban, more prophecies, modern rehashings and interpretations, Over Sixty's Travel Trouble section for 2025
- 22:13 - Shakedown Street - Nostrafakers, Mabus the 3rd Antichrist, Ray Mabus, Dennis "prophetofrevenge" Markuze, John "rogue scholar" Hogue
- 28:38 - Ship of Fools - Nostrascams, Gangnam Style, Rudolf Hess uses Nostradamus
- 32:08 - American Beauty - Edgar Cayce gets his voice back, starts a lucrative career as the Sleeping Prophet and has weird food ideas
- 36:01 - In the Dark - Cayce sells pseudomedical "cures", then loses it in 1932, makes lots of predictions and travels around in time, the "root race" and polygenesis, Atlantis and more
- 42:14 - Wake of the Flood - Cayce's Earth Changes, Lori Toye's I Am America maps, Gordon-Michael Scallion's prophetic doomsday maps, billionaires start buying land
- Music by Fanette Ronjat
More Info
- EPSIODE 53 | Time to Get Ill - DST, Y2K & 2012
- Episode 08 | Time Cube - Four Is the Loneliest Number
- Entry for Nostradamus on the Museum of Hoaxes website
- A translation of Nostradamus prophecies
- More translations of the prophecies
- Nostradamus’s Cherry Jelly recipe on Tasting History
- Nostradamus Predicted 9/11 on the Museum of Hoaxes
- Crystalinks prophecies page
- Nostradamus' 2025 predictions revealed on OverSixty
- Dennis Markuze - The Prophecies of Nostradamus
- HogueProphecy website
- An Idiot's Biography - John Hogue
- Edgar Cayce on Crystalinks
- Edgar Cayce’s life & readings page on his official website
- Edgar Cayce: The Would-Be Sleeping Prophet
- Earth Star magazine
- Arizona Corporation Commission Finds Payson Couple Defrauded Elderly Investor
- The Shocking Doomsday Maps Of The World And The Billionaire Escape Plans in Forbes
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- DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast list...
Next Episode

Lost Cities of the New World
EPISODE 130 | Lost Cities of the New World
Guest: Neil Laird, Emmy-nominated TV producer (Discovery, BBC, PBS, History, National Geographic), author of the Prime Time novel series
What's commonly called the "New World" is actually very old, and for a long time, people have been trying to track down supposedly lost locations in the Americas. While these folks have not succeeded, advances in technology are allowing us to make astonishing discoveries that are rewriting the history of human habitation in the Western Hemisphere.
Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. Review us here or on IMDb.
And seriously, subscribe, will ya?
SECTIONS
- 03:07 - The Lost City of Z - Percy Harrison Fawcett finds Manuscript 512 and goes looking in the Amazon, the search for Fawcett gets LIDAR, new discoveries are made about old New World urban planning
- 25:18 - The City of the Lost Monkey God - LIDAR again to the rescue, the jungle is difficult to navigate, rebranded as City of the Jaguar
- 31:48 - El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth - Everyone wants gold, and who doesn't want to live forever?, these locations are cyphers, Mysteries of...., Shark Week, the Prime Time novels
- Music by Fanette Ronjat
MORE INFO
- Neil Laird on IMDb
- Prime Time Travelers: A Satirical MM Adventure by Neil Laird
- Prime Time Pompeii by Neil Laird
- Lost Trails, Lost Cities by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett
- Manuscript 512: 18th century evidence of a lost civilization in Brazil? by Jason Colavito
- Manuscript 512 text
- Percy Fawcett and the Lost City on History Today
- The Enduring Mystery Behind Percy Fawcett’s Disappearance on History.com
- Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air in Smithsonian
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
- The Lost City of Z movie
- Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils by Rob Macgregor
- The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston
- Exclusive: Lost City Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest in National Geographic
- La Ciudad Blanca: The White City of Honduras
- Lure of the Lost City in National Geographic
- The Lost City That’s Not Lost, Not a City, and Doesn’t Need to Be Discovered
- El Dorado: Real history behind the legend on LiveScience
If you like this episode you’ll love
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