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>Not only do we only have one known example of sapience in the universe, but only one example of sapience on a planet with over a million species of animals. W

>Not only do we only have one known example of sapience in the universe, but only one example of sapience on a planet with over a million species of animals. What's even crazier to think about is the sequence of events that happened before humans appeared on Earth. Perhaps humans wouldn't have appeared if dinosaurs hadn't gone 'extinct' the way they did. It was also not guaranteed that our species would survive as long as we did - we have some evidence that we've come close to extinction before. Furthermore, it took a very long time for civilization to appear and even with civilization around, we weren't really advancing significantly before the industrial revolution. Yet what was vital for the industrial revolution? A cheap, plentiful, and easy to use source of energy - fossil fuels. The reason we have so much fossil fuel is because nothing could break down dead trees for millions of years, so they were buried instead. That eventually formed into various fossil fuels. The sequence of events that led humanity to the point where we could start exploring our solar system is crazy. Take plentiful fossil fuels out of the mix and modern society wouldn't exist. We're not looking for just intelligent life. We're looking for intelligent life that has got to at least a similar level of development as us. I don't think that's something guaranteed at all for intelligent life. Perhaps there are dozens, thousands, millions of planets, where intelligent life evolved, for every planet like ours, where intelligent life got to the point we did.

gremlinsinc 7y ago
Then there's also the fact that... time in space is a messed up fact. We could see evidence of life that was sent out 50k years ago (say a beam of light), but their whole race could be dead for a few thousand years and we'd never know until we set foot in their solar system. Or there could've been life nearby that went extinct the minute we began fashioning our own tools out of stone and metals. There could've been whole wars fought in space with the winners/losers going extinct before we were ever even formed through evolution. Would be nice if we can ever explore all of the universe and figure out all those secrets, and see the archaeology of other races, but I don't know if we'll ever get there. Would be amazing if we did, to only find out that we are the only sapient species. How rare a thing that would be that we're the only ones to make it past the great filter.
- fhars 7y ago
  Although the current state of affairs seems to be that we are hellbent on activating said filter and we‘ll be long dead (at least as a technological civilisation) by the time anyone else receives our current radio transmissions.
  - hoseja 7y ago
    Nobody can ever receive most of our current radio transmissions. They drop below the noise floor just out of our stellar neighborhood.
  - gremlinsinc 7y ago
    True... but odds are also that IF civ's get near to Kardashev 1, there's a good chance they ALSO build AI's, which even if they died out, the AI would live on being synthetic and nearly immortal. I think it's odd we don't see more synthetic ai type signs of life out there, at least. I think if we do kill ourselves we might have AI before then to at least broadcast to the universe that we were here.

gremlinsinc 7y ago

Then there's also the fact that... time in space is a messed up fact. We could see evidence of life that was sent out 50k years ago (say a beam of light), but their whole race could be dead for a few thousand years and we'd never know until we set foot in their solar system. Or there could've been life nearby that went extinct the minute we began fashioning our own tools out of stone and metals. There could've been whole wars fought in space with the winners/losers going extinct before we were ever even formed through evolution. Would be nice if we can ever explore all of the universe and figure out all those secrets, and see the archaeology of other races, but I don't know if we'll ever get there. Would be amazing if we did, to only find out that we are the only sapient species. How rare a thing that would be that we're the only ones to make it past the great filter.

fhars 7y ago
Although the current state of affairs seems to be that we are hellbent on activating said filter and we‘ll be long dead (at least as a technological civilisation) by the time anyone else receives our current radio transmissions.
- hoseja 7y ago
  Nobody can ever receive most of our current radio transmissions. They drop below the noise floor just out of our stellar neighborhood.
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  True... but odds are also that IF civ's get near to Kardashev 1, there's a good chance they ALSO build AI's, which even if they died out, the AI would live on being synthetic and nearly immortal. I think it's odd we don't see more synthetic ai type signs of life out there, at least. I think if we do kill ourselves we might have AI before then to at least broadcast to the universe that we were here.