I've always seen a problem with the idea of the great filter: why do we think the filter is one thing or one discrete barrier? Why couldn't there be a very lar

I've always seen a problem with the idea of the great filter: why do we think the filter is one thing or one discrete barrier? Why couldn't there be a very large number of low-probability filters and/or a continuous probability of failure spread across billions of years? Add them all up and the cumulative effect would be the same as a single great filter, but there would not be one single primary hurdle that needs to be cleared. This and the Fermi paradox itself are really just speculations. We have only one data point, which makes it impossible to say anything definitive.