Lokacin da muka fahimci cewa adadin taurari a sararin duniya da aka sani ya wuce octillion ɗaya (1027 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), to adadin duniyoyin da za a iya rayuwa a kansu ya kamata ya zama septillion (1024 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). Wannan adadi mai girma na duniyoyin da za a iya rayuwa a kansu ya haifar da babban fata a cikin al'ummar masana kimiyya cewa ɗan adam yana kusa da gano rayuwa a wani wuri a cikin faffadan sararin samaniya. Saboda haka aka kafa Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), tare da ware manyan kuɗaɗe ga aikin, kuma babban tsammani na gano rayuwa a sararin samaniya ne kaɗai ya daidaita shi. Na dogon lokaci, masana kimiyya suna neman kowace alama ta rayuwa a sararin samaniya. Duk da haka, sararin samaniya ya yi shiru. Ya ci gaba da yin shiru har zuwa lokacin da Majalisa ta rufe aikin a shekarar 1993. Kamfanoni masu zaman kansu sun ɗauki nauyin, suka ci gaba da neman rayuwa a bayan Duniya. Har yau, sararin samaniya ya kasance cikin shiru, bai ma furta harafi ɗaya ba. Me ya faru? A taƙaice, abin da ya faru shi ne, duk da ilimi da kimiyyar da muka ci gaba da ita, mun gano cewa akwai ƙarin abubuwan da rayuwa take bukata fiye da abubuwa biyu da Sagan ya ambata. Mun gano cewa duniyar da za ta iya ɗaukar kowace irin rayuwa – balle rayuwar mai hankali – ta fi rikitarwa fiye da yadda aka fara zato. Sigogin da ake buƙata sun ƙaru daga biyu zuwa goma, sannan zuwa ashirin, sannan zuwa hamsin…kuma haka yana ci gaba. Adadin duniyoyin da za su iya ɗaukar rayuwa ya ragu sosai, kuma yana ci gaba da raguwa har yau. Peter Schenkel, mai goyon bayan aikin SETI, ya rubuta wannan a wata kasida da aka buga a mujallar Skeptical Inquirer, 'Ƙoƙarin SETI na farko an yi masa alama da ƙididdigar fata fiye da kima na 201
That is all. When we understand that the number of stars in the known universe is more than one octillion (1027 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), then the number of habitable planets should be a septillion (1024 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). This gigantic number of habitable planets triggered massive hope within the scientific community that humankind was on the cusp of finding life somewhere in the wide universe. As such, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was founded, with huge sums of money dedicated to the project, matched only by the huge expectation of finding life in the wider cosmos. For a long time, scientists tried to look out for any sign of life in space. However, space was silent. It remained silent until Congress shut down the project in 1993. Private companies took the mantle and continued their search for life beyond Earth. To this day, space remains silent and has not uttered even a letter. What happened? In a nutshell, what happened was that, in spite of our advanced knowledge and science, we found that there are more components to life than the two elements mentioned by Sagan. We discovered that a habitable planet for any sort of life – let alone intelligent life – is more complicated than was first thought. The required parameters increased from two to ten, then to twenty, then to fifty…and it goes on. The number of potentially habitable planets dramatically decreased, and it continues to decrease to this day. Peter Schenkel, a supporter of the SETI project, wrote the following in an article that was published in the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, ‘Early SETI efforts were marked by overly optimistic estimates of the 201