Sunday, March 13, 2016

ToW 21: The Fermi Paradox

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

     This article by Tim Urban of Wait But Why attempts to explain in fairly simple terms the Fermi Paradox, which is the idea that, despite there being incomprehensibly large amounts of earth-like planets around sun-like stars in the universe, why we have never discovered any other life, intelligent or non-intelligent. He does this by breaking this complex and large topic down into simpler pieces, using a casual tone.

     One important detail to note about Wait But Why articles is that they have a very specific audience- they are not hosted anywhere and are posted in more of a blog format, meaning that not too many people run across the site by chance, and the site doesn't interest everybody as well, so the people who do stay are often big fans of the blog, and Urban recognizes and makes use of this in order to causally write, and become closer to his audience than a writer might usually

     This combination of casual tone and the style of explanatory writing allows Urban to effectively and extensively explain this complex topic, and in a way that is incredibly fascinating to those who read it. Urban achieves his purpose in this way, which is to spread the knowledge that he had learned for himself out of curiosity to those who also might be interested in this topic.

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