>>12386985The answer to the fermi paradox is that there are too many assumptions to draw a meaningful conclusion to.
Consider this, let's say that in the orion arm of the milky way, there are about 7 planets with advanced life on them. At this very minute, perhaps one will have advanced technology, and 1 will be about our level of technology (So 2 including us). We can reasonably expect that over 5000 parsecs of the orion arm, we might have those 7 scattered around. Let's say one is 60 parsecs away. Well, for one, our light won't reach it for another 600 years, and the inverse square law demonstrates that the radio waves we emit into space will be really really low to the noise floor. So there is a low chance of them picking up on us and us on them. Now, that is just a middling guess.
The fact is, that we have no way of quantifying life without some evidence of its existence. See Venus and Mars as examples. So that assumption of a lot of life or very little leaves us with the question of "What do we reasonably expect when we are dealing with a region of space 23000 parsecs on a side? The fact is, that life is either incredibly rare, which is a real possibility, or that advanced civilizations existing at the same epoch as us is incredibly unlikely. We have temporal and spatial limitations after all.
For all we know, Proxima centari could have had an advanced civilization that has since died out. Or it could just be forming, or that the conditions for advanced life is not there yet.
As for your question as to why they wouldn't? Well we like writing fiction about it, but as we have seen, the possibility of extraterrestrial life existing instantly captures the public imagination and speaks to a desire to know we are not alone.
