The Great Filter... where is everyone?

As long as we don’t have to do ice-breakers, I’d be willing to say hi

Sources:
1. “Toward a Type 1 civilization” – Los Angeles Times
2. “The Kardashev Scale – Type I, II, III, IV, & V Civilization” – Futurism
3. “A Statistical Estimation of the Occurrence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the Milky Way Galaxy” – Jet Propulsion Lab
4. “What is a Dyson Sphere?” – Space (dot com)
5. “Avoiding the Great Filter: How Long Until We’re Living Across the Solar System?” – Universe Today

[MotherShipMedia]

One possibility you didn't mention is that the "filter" is the idea of infinite expansion. It may well be that only societies that develop more sustainable models than our model of constant growth in energy needs, population, economic output, etc. From a certa9in perspective, that model can easily be seen as an "invasive species" whose only goal is to expand to consume more space and resources. The idea that we will "spread to through the galaxy" - or that any species will - presupposes that invasiveness as a necessary condition for advancement, which I don't think is even close to demonstrated.

Perhaps the reason we can't spot Type 2 or Type 3 Civs is that aliens either die trying to get to Type 1, or the recognize that infinite growth is a shell game that the universe will not allow to continue forever, and they develop a more sustainable. but also a smaller and quieter, existence.

I'm also not sure we've had enough time to make any definitive declarations. With barely 100 years of astronomy capable of detecting alien radio signals, there is a very limited window of the galaxy, in terms of space and time, that we've been able to "look at" for life. Let's take an example of a star 10, 000 ly from earth that is habitable and "has intelligent life." In order for us o know ANYTHING about them, first, they'd have to have been alive and broadcasting 10, 000 years ago. That's not an issue, really, as time scales are huge and it's easy to have a 10k difference lifke that - what IS an issue is that the fact we've only looked for 100 years means that they had to have been broadcasting between 10, 100 and 10, 000 years ago or we either haven't heard them yet, or never will. If they were a civ that lived to 100, 000 years, but died out 20k years ago, we'll never know. If they've been broadcasting for the last 8, 000 years, we won't know anything about it until around 4000 AD.

We have had an EXTREMELY limited window on our galaxy, never mind the universe and I think it's really premature to think Fermi is an issue because of "silence" and I further think Fermi might only SEEM like an "issue" to an invasive species that can't imagine any life other that constant, infinite expansion.

Fun Vid btw ... you obviously got me thinking, and you got a sub as a result.

[JeremyHelm]

2:14 we're stuck at the single cell egoisms stage, again 2:50 issuing calls for a protocol to converge as a team again

[jonathanr]

A manned mission to Mars is much farther off than 15 years. We really are nowhere near advanced enough right now.

[alfredosarachoduran]

Believe it or not, the first date I had with this girl, this was the subject we were discussing all night. Fast forward 6 years later, and we're happily married, 5 cats, 1 dog and still discussing evolution. She's a biologist, I'm an astrophysicist. :)

[mhjabbari]

Thanks for the video ❤, space is just pretty big and going from point A to B takes a lot of time, also we are pretty slow as well.

[daria_morgandorffer]

You would love the Frontlines book series by Marko Kloos! It covers interstellar travel and aliens. Seriously you should give it a shot. I personally loved them and the Alcubierre drive is apparently a real theory and is being looked into. I love it just because it is theoretically possible from what we know now. So we will see what the future holds!

[sarahcagley]

I know this is super random and does not have to do with the content in this video, but I wanted to ask you a question for another video topic, because it has been iching at my mind all day.


In the year 2029, the astroid apophis will come in close trajectory, the closest it has ever been to the keyhole.

It is solar maximum and solar activity can greatly effect the trajectory of an astroid.

With how close the astroid will be, do you think the push and pull between our Earth's gravitational forces and the activity from our suns' solar cycle would put the astroid in closer to the keyhole than predicted?

[stefans]

Great scientific approach and very well explained! Even the TikTok videos were very exciting. The longer videos are even better. Please continue. Looking forward to new content.

[Johnnycrystalblue]

Studied anthropology and archaeology always wondered why great civilizations suddenly became extinct and not much evidence left behind.

[chrisheist]

I figured out what the great filter was a few years ago. I made some videos explaining it in great detail, and nobody cared. The human species has already begun to stumble into it, the same way a wasp that had fallen into a swimming pool would flail helplessly while being sucked into the pool's skimmer box.

[bradacker]

Your topic selection is what caught my interest. Your delightful delivery combined with professionalism is what puts a smile on my face while surfing. Thank you

[jslb]

4:49 *"A window of inopportunity, if you will. A chance for an accident/incident."*
8:38 *Building two Death Stars (and promptly losing them) had to have bankrupted The Empire.*

[bucMecLoco]

Just to be clear. Love these videos and appreciate the work producing them!❤ I understand computing power works to push simulations. But all the computing power in the world isn't going to block radiation.

[Thime]

Another awesome video. I’ve read the series on the subject published by wait but why. Great stuff as well.

[Maggdusa]

We only live 100 years, and space has a speed limit. We're stuck here.

[caribbeanman]

Actually, it was not first proposed by Dyson. It was first proposed by a sci fi author - Stapleton I believe, is the last name, but I might be wrong - and was later popularized and named after Dyson who did a paper on it.

[JONSEY]

I think the one thing that truly prevents us from advancing to start trek levels or at least hinders and delays such advancements is money!
I know, that sounds kinda obvious, but let me try to explain.

We live in a society where money is used to by things.
If you don't have enough of it, then you can't do the testing needed to create such technologies or the materials to make them.
This slows things down.
Now, of course, as society is, we need money to live, etc.
We must remember, though, there was a time when we were able to live without money.
We created such a system due to the selling of goods in a fair way.

Now let us imagine we live in a star trek type society, they don't use money.
They have a system where they can create abundance, that of food, clothing and so on.
They work, not for pay but to advance society in such a way as to help everyone.

Without money and the willingness to create and build, you could work on developing anything and bring it into being, within the laws of science though, of course.
Money wouldn't be the thing that holds you back.
A starship could be built, as well as many othet things and in much faster time because money doesn't have to be raised to build or develop it, people would simply work on it.

I understand in reality that would be more challenging than it sounds, after all, if people can already get food, clothing, and a roof over their heads without working, then why would they want to?
Maybe people want to help the world be a better place and help create wonderful technologies without money being an issue, the sky so to speak would be the limit.

Sadly though, there is the other problem of greed.
Some people, no matter what they have will always want more or to somehow be better than or above others.

So maybe that's our biggest problem, our own selfishness and greed, perhaps even over inflated egos in some cases.

[bucMecLoco]

I'm not sure why computing power would be the predominant factor to determine ability for humans to travel space. The predominant factor for civilizations to travel the world was learning to build a boat just strong enough to cross the oceans. Seems the most significant factor to persist in space is radiation. If today we figured out how shield astronauts from radiation it would be a giant leap. Next would to counter physical accumulative complications to body from zero gravity and finally how to grow food in space.

[sriram]

Maybe the deeper measure of progress is our ability to get along with each other despite our differences. Maybe civilizations more evolved know our existence, and simply don’t want to engage.

[ajskarz]

I love your videos so much!! I hope you keep making them :)