What exactly is the “Great Filter” theory, and how does it work?
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We don’t see any live anywhere in the universe and started speculating whether before any life is able to ‘explore space’, might there be just too many barriers in nature which destroy a species. Too many ‘filters’ which together form a Great Filter.
We thought of a number of possible causes (filters) that could kill us before our society becomes advanced enough to really travel out of or solar system. We imagine this could apply to alien species as well. It’s possible that our social nature is too narrow-minded to overcome issues like greed, fear for other people and we nuke ourselves before we are wise enough to collaborate and start a space oriented society. A planet in general might just not have enough resources to make this possible, or at the time ant society is a advanced enough they’ve always used up too much already. A giant meteorite might statistically always crash into planets before they reach maturity.
All of these are examples of filters we, or any other species, have to overcome before we can really travel through space. As the universe seems kinda ‘dead’ to us, maybe it’s just not possible to overcome these filters for any creatures that might arise. There’s a lot of unknown unknowns in this of course.
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