Here’s the thing, aliens should have visited us by now. Regardless of whether you want to believe or not, the math, science and statistics all point to there being life beyond planet earth. There’s even a paradox which explores the whole ‘where are the aliens?’ concept. The complex issue was mapped out by a physicist guy called Enrico Fermi and his buddy Michael Hart, way back in the early 1900s. Many of the points they made way back when are still troubling us to this day.

Nasa’s got telescopes and rovers looking for life on other planets and ufologists all over the world have their eyes on the sky just waiting for a UFO to swoop down. But all this assumes Earth, and its inhabitants, are worth visiting in the first place. Maybe aliens just aren’t down with our way of life or would struggle to break the language barrier. Or just maybe the alien life forms on other planets are still festering and slowly evolving out of their primordial swamps. Check out our list of reasons why aliens haven’t visited us yet and let us know if we missed any.

15. Aliens are actually here, we just don’t realize it

From alien wackjobs (read: ancient aliens guy) to esteemed scientists, there are people out there who believe aliens have already visited us. We are an easily distracted species so maybe we’re too busy binging on Netflix shows or putting avocado in every recipe imaginable to notice aliens slowly taking over the planet? One Canadian scientist, Stanton Friedman, is convinced they are here already. He does have some credibility as he’s worked on classified US aerospace projects and has some mad nuclear physicist skills. His theory? Aliens are monitoring our space exploration and will quarantine us if we even think about colonizing other planets. Best not book that all inclusive vacay to Mars yet … just in case.

14. Governments have been keeping alien visits on the down low

The truth is out there, folks. Mulder and Scully knew it and now many ufologists are claiming to know it too. The ‘truth’, in this case, is the theory that governments are withholding all the juicy alien details from the rest of society. The reason? The greedy, political types want the alien super-tech for themselves. Which maybe sounded right back in the day. But now, with so many people watching the skies for UFOs and monitoring places such as Area 51, could any governments really keep something so huge a secret for this long?

13. Intergalactic travel is way too expensive

The US, Russia and China are the top three countries ploughing money into space exploration, with America spending billions on exploring the final frontier. There’s just one problem, even with this massive budget we’ve yet to seek out new life or civilizations. So it stands to reason that while another species might be valiantly trying to boldly go where no man (or alien) has gone before, they just don’t have the cold hard cash or ‘Interstellar Kredit’ to reach us. That’s if they even have currencies or hands or shiny spacecraft in the first place. For all we know they might be spending all their alien coin on fast cars and hot alien chicks. And really, who could blame them?

12. We’re not listening out for aliens properly

Let me tell you a little story about elephants. For years we puzzled over their ability to move as a group, we even thought they were telepathic at one stage. Turns out, we just weren’t listening to them properly. Then some bright spark lowered the frequency on their listening device and boom! We picked up their signals. Elephants are chattering away all the live long day at a frequency humans can’t hear. So it totally makes sense that whatever noises or communication we’re listening out for in space might not be the ones we expect. Aliens could be slinging data at us 24/7 and we’d have no clue.

11. We’re all stuck in the Matrix and someone is messing with us 

This one will really mess with your heads. Our perceived reality could all be just one big simulation created by an advanced species. Let that sink in for a moment. When you’ve stopped hyperventilating into a paper bag, read on. Yep, we could all be the puppets of a species so advanced it’s toying with us and seeing how we react. In this theory aliens have been deliberately kept out of the simulation so far but could be introduced at a later stage. If ever your life tends towards The Truman Show levels of weirdness, this could be the explanation. Or our actual reality is so grim we’re all locked in the Matrix to make us more compliant. Dark times.

10. There’s a super-alien out there destroying intelligent life

Just as humans have evolved to become a super-predator, it’s thought that a highly intelligent alien species would most likely set off on an intergalactic killing spree. This could be to ensure its own survival or it might just be really paranoid and aggressive. Either way, if you cross its path, you’re space toast. This theory has been doing the rounds in the science community since the 80s when a paper on it was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Ain’t no one got time to go trawling the library for that, but to sum it up: if an intelligent species has managed to avoid being self-destructive it may see other species as a threat and destroy them. Pretty much everyone’s approach to playing World of Warcraft then.

9. Aliens have become extinct

Here on earth we’ve experienced our own set of extinctions. Most famously dinosaurs bit the dust and paved the way for Jurassic Park – but our planet has experienced over two dozen of these extinction events wiping out various lifeforms along the way. So maybe our intergalactic buddies have suffered the same fate. Their planet could have been subject to a naturally occurring event such as a meteor strike, massive volcanic eruptions or an ice age. If a species was wiped out or seriously decimated that would definitely put the brakes on aliens developing the tech needed to come visit us here on earth.

8. Aliens just aren’t intelligent enough

No disrespect to our alien fam, but maybe they’re like really stupid or something? We often assume aliens will be superior beings toting laser guns, beam-me-up-scotty rays and weird a** probes. But maybe aliens are just chilling on their planet the same way neanderthal man was back in the day. They could just be at the rubbing-two-sticks-together to make fire stage – in which case someone needs to send them a s’mores recipe, ASAP. Or maybe they just can’t figure out the extremely highly technical and complex math, physics and engineering needed to get their little green butts to Earth safely.

7. Aliens have discovered Netflix

Bare with me on this one, guys. There are many theories on how advanced beings would behave as a society. But this one seems suspiciously modelled on our own introverted existence of online activity and media streaming. Basically it’s thought that intelligent life could get so wrapped up in highly engaging media (aka Netflix and The Clever) and become so hooked on it that travel to other planets just loses its appeal. So basically aliens haven’t visited us yet because they’re all streaming Stranger Things and furiously clicking on The Clever articles. Which seems like a far better alternative than whizzing through space in a tin box tbh.

6. Aliens have reached peak alien

Aliens may have gotten so alien that they just don’t want to spend time with us. It’s like us inviting a giant squid around for a dinner party. What would we talk about, where’s the common ground and how would we clean up all the squid goo when they’ve gone? If we theorize that aliens are absolutely nothing like us, why would they want to visit us at all? We’re probably underestimating just how alien aliens are. They could be anything from microbial beings to giant creatures with eleven legs and eyes on the end of their ears. Or they could just be so superior that we’re just not worthy of visiting.

5. Aliens are shunning Earth

When you look back in history and see how man has colonized Earth, it’s not exactly the greatest advert for space travel. Hey aliens, come see how we’ve damaged, pillaged and ruined this fantastic planet. Our greenhouse gases are through the roof, yo! Plus our ecosystems are shot to pieces. Two week stay, pollution, deforestation and coral bleaching included. Additional charge for breakfast. You know, if I was an alien, I’d give that a miss. And science agrees. Kind of. The zoo hypothesis speculates that aliens are intentionally withholding contact to see how all this plays out. They’re watching us speed headlong into oblivion or waiting for us to reach an ethically sound point in our history. Good luck with that one alien guys, have you seen what Trump is up to lately? Let’s not expect a visit from the aliens just yet, lads.

4. It’s too dangerous for aliens to pop by

Curiosity kills the cat. Or on this planet, human curiosity tends towards killing new things and stuffing it and putting it in a museum – hello taxidermy! Or we like to kill things, dissect them and quell the brewing curiosity that demands to know what the innards of various animals look like. Call me crazy, but most times we can get a good look at things with our eyes and a scalpel needn’t be involved. Though, maybe alien livers glow in the dark or perhaps you can play a tune on their ribs? Who knows. Aliens probably figure that if they just come visit unannounced, we’ll more than likely kill them before they can reveal their peaceful intentions. Or we’ll upload a trojan horse to the laptop that guides their craft, leaving them stranded here forever.

3. Aliens don’t exist, bro

The heart-breaking reason why aliens haven’t visited us yet could simply be that they just don’t exist. Some science types like to believe that Earth is so rare, there couldn’t possibly be another planet out there capable of supporting life like ours. And really, Earth only works because of a chain of super lucky circumstances that happened to all come together to form the perfect planet for us. Unless you’re still stuck on the whole God, seven days, garden of Eden thing, which really doesn’t leave room for any alien talk at all. Either way, if they ain’t existing, they ain’t visiting. Simple.

2. Earth’s too far away for aliens to visit us

Remember those epic road trips your family would make you take as a kid? Hours in the car to go visit some people you barely knew. Such a drag. That’s possibly a very low-tech version of how aliens see us, if they can even see us at all from their distant planet. Bleaker still, if we’re separated by a few thousand light years, it’s more likely that one – or both of us – will become extinct before we can haul a** to meet up. Aliens may have even sent us a message, but given the distance it has to travel, it’s going to take a heck of a long time to reach us. Meanwhile, want to know what message we’re sending into space?

1. They’re intelligent but their alien vehicles are seriously low-tech 

Aliens might have beautiful minds but they could be directing that intelligence to some more worthwhile pursuits. Applying their cerebral intel to solving their planet’s problems, figuring out how cats purr or creating majestic works of art could all be higher on their list of priorities than visiting us dumb schmucks. Maybe they’ve put aliens on every single one of their seven moons but can’t quite figure out how to get further? Or just maybe they’re all trotting around in Flintstone-style cars and riding a dinosaur to work? Unless that dinosaur evolves some wings and a spacesuit, those aliens won’t be visiting us just yet.

Sources: express.co.uk, theguardian.com