>People like having a purpose and being part of something greater than themselves. What could be greater than the entire universe? There is also the possibilit

>People like having a purpose and being part of something greater than themselves. What could be greater than the entire universe? There is also the possibility of complete existential freedom. Freedom to choose meaning can be very frightening. Humanity is still driven by the meaning and purpose programmed by evolution and slightly modulated by cultural evolution. When technology advances, it will become possible to modify personal or collective meaning at will or fulfill evolutionary desires more directly. Creat Filter Hypothesis: The reason why it's difficult to meet technically advanced aliens in the galaxy is because technology enables direct ways to get meaning and satisfaction that far surpasses anything the real world can offer. Each civilization develops to the point where they can produce technology that short circuits the evolutionary drive and replace it with something better (It can be 'Enlightement', 'Soma', 'immersive neural lace games and soap opera', or 'permanent intellectual, physical and existential orgasm by brain fungus') or alternatively they start to modify their core utility function that gives them meaning and purpose. Intelligent agent can't derive meaning from rationality or intelligence using deduction. Self preservation is not more logical than being happy, it's provided by evolution. Those who explore universe have not fallen into this filter or have not opted to remove this desire. Civilizations that pass this Great Filter are puritans