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What do you think the Great Filter is? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 6 days ago by Cryophilia to c/asklemmy

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The Great Filter is the idea that, in the development of life from the earliest stages of abiogenesis to reaching the highest levels of development on the Kardashev scale, there is a barrier to development that makes detectable extraterrestrial life exceedingly rare. The Great Filter is one possible resolution of the Fermi paradox.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

Personally I think it's photosynthesis. Life itself developed and spread but photosynthesis started an inevitable chain of ever-greater and more-efficient life. I think a random chain of mutations that turns carbon-based proto-life into something that can harvest light energy is wildly unlikely, even after the wildly unlikely event of life beginning in the first place.

I have no data to back that up, just a guess.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (23 children)

I like the “Dark Forest” theory I learned from the Three Body Problem books. Basically it’s dumb for civilizations to make a big footprint and reveal themselves because other civilizations won’t know how powerful and dangerous you might become, and so out of precaution they might just zap you. Ironic and over dramatic, but just because that’s a possibility it might be wise to keep a low profile and not invite trouble.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Tbf we are noises as fuck. We've been sending so much out for decades.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Sure, but it’s just small game chatter. We start building a Dyson sphere powered starkiller cannon or some such nonsense we might pop up on somebody’s radar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

The problem for the Fermi paradox is that there's no reason to do stuff like that before we start colonizing other solar systems.

Also, how do you destroy a civilization that has a Dyson swarm already? That's not exactly an easy task, and if you insist on remaining stealthy yourself it's nigh impossible.

[–] Cryophilia 1 points 6 days ago

Military Industrial Complex: "Hold my beer"

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