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Personally, I don't believe in the great filter hypothesis. The universe is incredibly vast enough entire civilizations can likely go through millions of years
by harshalizee 5y ago
Personally, I don't believe in the great filter hypothesis. The universe is incredibly vast enough entire civilizations can likely go through millions of years of births and deaths without ever having contact with another alien life form.
Humans have a huge bias to feel "special".
We've only been broadcasting radio waves for a few decades now, and even that would just be lost in the background noise at large distances.
It would be extremely surprising if we even find any life outside the solar system for at least a few centuries.
- bpodgursky 5y agoI don't think this gives appropriate weight to exponential growth. If humans are ever able to leave the earth and even theoretically establish permanent habitation, it's unthinkable that no other civilization has done so.
- throwawayboise 5y agoEven so the galaxy (let alone the universe) is huge, and faster-than -light or extra-dimensional travel is probably impossible. Contact with another civilization is extremely unlikely even if life is abundant in the galaxy.
- hossbeast 5y agoCheck out von neumann automatons. The idea is that once you started colonizing, you'd cover the entire galaxy in ~a million years, aka very quickly on a galactic timescale. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
- scrollaway 5y agoA galaxy is very tiny on the scale of the universe.
- hossbeast 5y agoSure, but the gp said galaxy.
- foobiter 5y agothe universe is huge and time is long, there could be millions of civilizations and we could happen to exist at a time that doesn’t coincide with a single one
- Ericson2314 5y agoThe universe is extremely young. We might just be tied for first, if it takes 3rd generation stars for example.