From the Chiasmus archive: February 11th, 2014. "FERMI PARADOX (PART 6) - DO ALIENS SEND OUT PROBES? IF SO, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?"

I feel that at some-point the Fermi Paradox will be a focal point of discussion, as far as a widespread popular culture reference or maybe a significant event.  Like a representation of that 'paradox' or intergalactic incident occurs, a signal, or an unusual object is detected in our known view of the universe.  Nothing would be grander for humanity,  just for a moment, removing our self's from the tedium and at times self pitiful dire predicaments -  as we look into the unknown for something "wonderful".

But, in the meantime the Fermi Paradox, after 60 years, is still saying, "Where the fuck are they? (aliens)".  As each paradox becomes more detailed and discussed as time marches on.  All to justify or at least theorize the dilemma that we all face.  Are we alone?  The Von Neumann self-replicating space/ship probe theory stands as an interesting part of the 'paradox'.  The idea that an advanced alien civilization would send out self replicating probes, that continually replicate as they move forward to explore the galaxy, sourcing material on the way, asteroids, cosmic dust, maybe other space junk out there and so on.  The problem is, say after (theorizing) 10million years of these self replicating probes being sent out (which apparently is not a long time on the universe scale);  we still can't detect them, but some claim they have already arrived: 

from http://phys.org:

Mathematicians in Scotland calculate that "self-replicating" alien probes could already have explored our solar system and may still be here but undetectable to our current technologies.  

The robotic probes could explore our galaxy and self-replicate themselves from interstellar dust and gas, after which the parent and child probes would each set off for a different star, where they would look for signs of life and then self-replicate themselves again. The probes would therefore disperse themselves radially across space.  In all the scenarios the scientists looked at, exploration timescales were reduced when the probes were self-replicating, and they concluded that a fleet of self-replicating probes could travel at only 10% of the speed of light and still explore the entire Galaxy in the relatively short time of 10 million years. This is a tiny fraction of the age of the Earth and the scientists say the results reinforce the idea of the "Fermi Paradox."  

The Fermi Paradox, proposed in 1953 by physicist Enrico Fermi, suggests there is a contradiction between the high probability that civilizations exist elsewhere in the Universe and the fact that there has been no contact between ourselves and other civilizations.  Dr Forgan said that the fact that we have not detected or seen any evidence of alien probes in the solar system suggests there have been no probe-building civilizations in the Milky Way in the last few million years or that the probes are so hi-tech we are unable to detect them. Another possibility is that probes could be programmed to make contact only with civilizations that pass a set measure of intelligence, which could be the ability to detect the probes. 

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(A.Glass 2014)