They haven't developed yet seems possible. Someone will be first, however unlikely it seems to them. As scary as the great filter and dyeing out is, life is p

They haven't developed yet seems possible. Someone will be first, however unlikely it seems to them. As scary as the great filter and dyeing out is, life is pretty durable. Even if we kill ourselves, some organism will probably slither out from under a rock after the ash settles and start afresh. There seems to be a selection force that works against aggressive forms of life becoming too powerful. If your both belligerent and powerful, you have a chance of shooting yourself (your species) in the foot. So it appears that any sufficiently advanced civilization would be pretty benevolent and that this might be a necessary condition to advancing.