4 ms·

the great filter is coming.

• quink 10y ago
  I don't think it is the greatest filter, I have no idea what that might be. But I absolutely agree that civilisations boiling or suffocating themselves out of existence, most likely through carbon dioxide, is a much greater filter than nuclear war or hostile extraterrestrials. Just look at Venus. If we have runaway, I just hope we might survive by darkening the skies, lowering our albedo. That hopefully seems like a survival (whatever that means in the context) strategy once chlorophyll fails us.
  • antisthenes 10y ago
    Wouldn't darkening the skies raise albedo? Ideally we want more of the planet covered in snow, or, if that's not possible, deserts.
    • quink 10y ago
      > Wouldn't darkening the skies raise albedo? Ideally we want more of the planet covered in snow, or, if that's not possible, deserts. I probably should have said "reduce the amount of sunlight reaching us", i.e. make the place less bright from our perspective instead of "lowering our albedo", which is the opposite of the relevant outside view. Talking about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation_management
• peller 10y ago
  For anybody who doesn't get this comment: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
  • seiferteric 10y ago
    To expand on my comment, I think this is a sink or swim moment for humanity. I think we need a great leap in intelligence and technology to get out of this mess, either with AI or genetic engineering because we don't have centuries to come up with solutions and I don't think politics can solve it. It will take real technology to remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the environment, like small scale fusion, or self replicating solar along with efficient ways to remove CO2 from air. Nothing else will do I'm afraid.