Fermi Paradox Predicting Humankind's Future?

An anonymous reader writes "The Fermi paradox says that if extraterrestrial civilizations exist, at least one of them should have colonized the entire galaxy by now. But since there is no evidence of this, humankind must be the only intelligent life in the galaxy. The Space Review has an article on how the Fermi paradox can be applied to human civilization. It says that, like the extraterrestrials, humans have three choices: colonize the galaxy, remain on Earth, or become extinct."

Comments

Re:Fermi paradox

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Maybe our evolution was unusually fast? Could be that there are lots of civilizations out there, but they're 10,000 years behind us.

Or perhaps we all evolved at roughly the same rate, and are all going to invent light-speed travel at the same time. Then it'll be a gold rush.

I don't know how Fermi can assume that either of the above are not true.