In an informal discussion in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exists in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as spacecraft or probes is not seen. Fermi is an Italian-born, American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, for his contributions to the development of quantum mechanics and the winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics.
He asked “Where are they?”
This is known as Fermi's paradox, ‘The silence of the universe’
His logic was straight forward; using the population of Chicago. If I borrow his logic and apply it in Kerala’s context, it will be as follows.
It is estimated that there are about 200 million (20 crore) coconut palm trees in Kerala.
Assume that yielding from each palm is taken in every 3 months period.
It needs 800 million (80 crores) climb per year on the trees for plucking the coconut
If a coconut plucker climbs 40 trees per day and he works 250 days per year, it comes 10,000 climbs per person.
Hence for a total of 800 million climbs we need 80,000 coconut pluckers.
So, there is a fair chance for meeting a coconut plucker at least one or two times in your life time.
There are at least 10 ^ 11 stars in the Milky Way. Famous cosmologist Carl Sagan once said: "There may be a million worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy alone which are at this moment inhabited by other intelligent beings".
The Fermi paradox can be asked in two ways. The first is, "Why are no aliens or their artifacts physically here?" Since there are many stars older than the Sun, or since intelligent life might have evolved earlier elsewhere, the question then becomes why the galaxy has not been colonized already. Even if colonization is impractical or undesirable to all alien civilizations, large-scale exploration of the galaxy is still possible.
Since there is no conclusive evidence on Earth or elsewhere in the known universe of other intelligent life after 13.7 billion years of the universe's history, we have a serious conflict
The consequence seems to be that we are alone as consciously perceiving beings in the galaxy, perhaps in the whole universe. We seem to be back to some old models of the solar system that told us that we are exceptional.
Could there be any other reason for this great silence of the universe?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI liked the beginning..as you have started with a subject of interest to me.. but you I afraid you have drastically reduced the potential of coconut climbing robots... I think you need to multiply the no.of trees by 4 ... so the no. of climbers in Kerala should be 16 times that of your figure...In my calculations I use a more conservative figure ( conservative no. of climbers)I use 40 trees a day per person and arrived at a figure of 80,000 climbers...
Yes TKV it is a mistake from my part. I will correct it accordingly
ReplyDelete*Kerala: Women Scaling New Heights with Coconut Tree-Climbing Machine*
ReplyDelete*Kozhikode, Dec 3 (Economic Times):* Thirty-four-year-old Praseetha
Dineshan from Kattipara panchayat in Kozhikode used to work as a postwoman
delivering letters from 8 am to 5.30 pm. No longer.
After completing a training course of Coconut Development Board (CDB) for
climbing coconut tree using a machine, she has now quit her temporary job
and is happy to climb coconut trees to pluck coconuts.
"Yesterday I climbed 15 trees and today I did 20. More and more people are
calling me to climb trees and I get Rs 15 per tree," she said.
She can complete her job by afternoon and can get paid even more.
Praseetha is even thinking of buying a Scooty on loan as she often has to
hire an auto-rickshaw to reach some of the places where she has to pluck
coconuts. As yet another male bastion falls with more and more women
shedding their inhibitions and coming forward to climb coconut trees, the
climbing profession may soon become a family affair with the woman and her
husband or brother taking up the job.