The Fermi paradox nags at me. Now a team of Americans are arguing (again) in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society that we should have evidence of our being surrounded by one or more galactic civilizations. It sounds to be another review article and I suppose it's meant to be encouraging. Yet while the logical and statistical agrgument looks sound, we still don't have a contact so clear that it can be replicated by independent teams of observers. Granted, scientists may find it convienient to not look, or to misinterpret data that doesn't conform to preconceptions, but there are too many observers who are sympathetic to SETI to make "scientific closed-mindedness" an adequate excuse. At least some galactic civilizations (assuming technologies millenia in advance of ours) should be obvious--so obvious that all but the most stubborn would have to admit that something is going on.
So back to Fermi's question: where are they?
Whatever the answer, the consequences for politics (and for everything else) are profound.
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