The Universe Within 12.5 Light Years

When the Fermi Paradox was first posited, scientists and engineers seemed to believe that interstellar travel was soon to be technologically achievable, a few decades, maybe centuries for the less optimistic. Progress around space propulsion has kind of stalled since then and we should maybe question the possibility of interstellar travel as this would give an easy but unpleasant answer to the famous paradox.

Right- “where are all the aliens?” is answered by either “they don’t exist” or “they do but physics of the universe prevent them from moving between solar systems.”

I dislike either/or answers in such open-ended scenarios. It points to our lack of humility in the vast unknown.

eg: maybe they exist(ed) but once a civilization gets advanced enough to build FTL-like travel, they invent AI and use it for warfare and then soon cease to exist. This would mean there are potentially many civilizations (and AI?) that are budding and could travel through the universe.

eg: We aren't in an interesting enough place to bother visiting.

eg: they exist and know about us but have "prime directive" (Ala: Star Trek) laws that state they can't make contact until we reach a stable enough civilization to invent warp drive (or some other advancement.)

eg: There is some exotic reason that our pocket of the Milky Way is un-navigable.

We know enough physics to rule out any ftl travel. Assuming that is correct which seems very likely they can't get here, even radio signals is question able - even if radio signals can get here either they have already passed and their civialization (sun) is dead or ours will be dead by the time they arrive.