Fermi's Paradox

People have tried to reconcile their belief that there are many habitable planets in our galactic neighborhood with the belief that their inhabitants don’t visit us. This is known as Fermi’s Paradox.  Here are some explanations that occur to me (and I suppose to others also):

1.      There are no other inhabitable planets. There only seems to be, but for a variety of reasons such as cosmic radiation, proximity to other celestial bodies with whom they have collided, and who knows what else, those planets are not as accommodating of life as is earth.

2.      The people on those other planets have turned inwards and now dwell in virtual worlds ---- brains on a shelf kept alive by A.I. assistants, or maybe their conscious selves reside in computers.  Presumably these computers control great defensive weapons so we don’t arrive and shut them off.

3.      Against the background of eternity, the lifespan of a civilization is a brief fizzle. Maybe our fizzle is occurring when the others have already happened or have yet to happen.

4.      They took one look at us and asked “Why bother?”

5.      They got reliant on A.I. intelligences that grew far beyond their masters and finally got rid of those annoyances. This begs the question of why then don’t those A.I. intelligences seek us out?  Or at least our resources. Oh right! I forgot #4.

6.      The aliens have and do come here but are less inept than us and don’t let themselves be known. They have a prime directive to not interfere. And anyway, they wouldn’t want to get their hands (or tentacles) polluted by us.

7.      They have actually adapted to look like us and have in fact replaced us…well, most of us…YOU still haven’t been replaced.