New Delhi, Feb. 11 -- Sometimes, hoping for civil engagement on the internet is like shouting into space. Every attempt at communication draws responses that feel alien-like unfamiliar aggressors attacking us in an unknown language.

One day in 1950, Enrico Fermi went out for lunch with his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. No one recalls exactly how it happened, but the conversation turned to then-recent reports about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. All of a sudden, Fermi asked, "Where is everybody?" This simple question, a statistical reflection on the likely existence of alien civilizations, is a profound one and has since come to be called 'Fermi's Paradox.'

There are ...