The basic cycle of mass extinction is that an organism becomes too successful and breaks the ecosystem in ways that more complex life has trouble surviving.
So, yeah, an intelligent species has to prove itself capable of self control to not destroy its own environment or at least capable enough to spread before it does.
Dont worry, there will be others. We’re just one of the first precursor species.
Not a particularly interesting one, but still.
Mother nature made us more clever than other animals but didn’t give us any additional wisdom. So we destroy our environment and overshoot our population the same as any other species.
Too bad our environment is ‘everywhere.’ Perhaps nature wanted to commit suicide and so spawned us.
nature will be fine. when you really think about it the planet is just beget by the stars so like are we really that important? probably just one of a thousand attempts across the universe.
Rich White People: “Humans are simply incapable of self-governance. They are too violent, too prone to conflict, too hell bent on self-obliteration. I suppose we are doomed as a species to exterminate ourselves and all other life surrounding us.”
Every Other Socio-Economic Group: “STAHP! PLEASE STAHP!!!”
Greed and lack of vision aren’t flaws exclusive to white people. Implying such is racist.
White people?
Those aren’t mutually exclusive, though. Even if 99.9% of a species fits in perfectly with the environment, if that last little sliver destroys everything, and the rest of the species is unable and/or unwilling to stop them, then we destroy everything anyway. Sure, it may not be ALL humans, but it’s still humans.
What a stupid take.
Please see: street kids playing the game and hustling for money. It’s the same exact strategy as businessmen. The same game. It’s all the same from the bottom to the top, and these shitty rappers have people sucking their dick about struggle when they are doing the same manipulative things as the rich people.
Kill yourself, or go to war against it before you ever play that game.
Selling meth, crack and H, or pimping and trafficking is just as shitty as being a crooked cop making side money or a corrupt politician or businessman. Where were they when there were protests against cops? In 2020 they proved they are bitch and down for nothing but money. Not only that but when you understand how all that shit works, you know regular people use them, they are basically used by feds to do the dirty work the feds can’t legally do.
I think it makes more sense to say that money is the great filter that’s threatening us right now. It’s the root of all evil, after all.
Love of money is the root of all evil.
In reality, it’s more like unfettered greed of certain people
I would say that psychologically it’s the addiction of power. We toe the line where “competition” creates the dopamine release of “being better than others.”
Yet for some that means it’s never enough. Richest person in the world? Need to take over government. Most powerful world leader? Need to assert myself even more.
I think the great filter often boils down to unnecessary competition. In the short term it leads to technological strides, but in the long term it becomes a species self-harm, and perhaps broader. A good theoretical example is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_of_Earth’s_Past
Tap for spoiler
Every species that exists within that series is so focused on ensuring they have the most power that they will go out of their way to annihilate any other species due to the assumption that’s what all of them will do is seek more power. Ironically considering the scientific and technological capabilities of the involved parties, they may have been able to work together towards a better outcome than “anyone who isn’t me is my enemy” which is basically universal fascism.
I’ve been floating the idea that evolution is the ultimate culprit. Add intelligence to “most prolific, genetically” and get capitalism, then late stage capitalism in our technological age, and viola…
I’ve been told I’m insane, though, so take it with a grain of salt
Money is just paper. Now it’s just bits on a disk.
The human need to acquire I think is the problem.
So you don’t think money is power, and your don’t think information is power either. What is?
Power not money. Government, patriarchy, racism, and their ilk all drive people in similarly destructive ways, money is just the (highly visible) common language.
It’s actually type b personally disorders. Without them, capitalism couldn’t exist.
Mental health professional here. Can confirm. But they need a lot of enablers.
That’s the other half of the filter. Regular people follow them.
Because of money.
Nah.
We might end up back at cave dwellers with cancers that kills us at 30, but we’ll maintain a local presence.
A filter doesn’t prevent life on earth continuing, it just stops it contaminating outter space.
But the point of Fermi’s Paradox is that we are not seeing evidence of alien intelligence anywhere. We don’t expect it here on earth, but we look out in space and see no light/radio/other waves that look like messages; no energy bursts or other anomalies that don’t have better explainations (though some have no explaination at all). The Great Filter is simply a hypothesis – like the Dark Forest – as to why we don’t see evidence of intelligent life in space.
If we went back to caves, we’d have great-filtered ourselves.
Cancer never killed people young in relevant quantities, that is a big reason why we never evolved to get rid of it to begin with: We already have old kids by the time it causes trouble. The same way getting another set of teeth never evolved. Or generally getting far older.
I think he meant the environment will be so polluted and radioactive that cancer will be more common at younger ages
I hold with the idea that we haven’t encountered an alien intelligence because species reach a point where they destroy themselves
Or, if they get past the great filter of self-absorbed shittery, they either:
- Realize how dangerous and pathetic almost smart enough species are and steer clear entirely.
- Realize life itself is a game of greed and shittery and settle in to a life of reclusive observance to not be greedy.
- Allow themselves to die off because life is a pathetic attempt to be special on a stage that is far too vast to ever change or give a damn about sentience.
I lean towards 1.
The traits that allow a species to achieve global dominance are not compatible with long term survival.
Sure they are. When tempered with other obvious evolutionary advantages like foresight and valuing the needs of the community above ludicrous individual hoarding.
