Over the past century, humanity has experienced a remarkable technological leap. This progress has fostered the belief that our technological potential is boundless. By extension, this assumption has been applied to extraterrestrial civilizations as well.

Combined with the discovery of numerous potentially habitable planets, it leaves scientists perplexed—why haven’t we found evidence of intelligent alien life?

If advanced alien civilizations could rapidly expand across the cosmos due to their technological prowess, why haven’t we encountered them?

According to a new hypothesis published in the journal Futures, the reason may be a universal cap on the technological development of intelligent species.

This limit, significantly lower than the ability to colonize a galaxy, could explain the absence of alien civilizations in our observations.

Scientists suggest that we may never encounter an interstellar alien civilization, or even a signal from one, because every civilization in the universe likely hits a technological ceiling.

Looking at human history—marked by the rise and fall of civilizations, technological breakthroughs, and the absence of visible intelligent aliens—researchers propose that the technological capabilities of all advanced species, including humans, are not infinite.