5 ms·

Would be funny if the "great filter" is not nukes or some other weapon, but social media. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.o

Would be funny if the "great filter" is not nukes or some other weapon, but social media. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

Nasrudith 10mo ago
The Great Filter is just bullshit until we come across space ruins to prove that something has been filtering out civilizations. It is possible that we are just the "precursors" without any giants to stand upon the shoulders of. Catastrophazing new media hasn't gone out of fashion yet. Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations?
- walterbell 10mo ago
  Any real-world side effects of Reality TV?
  - ben_w 10mo ago
    Arguably the election of Trump.
- ben_w 10mo ago
  The absence is the evidence. Being a precursor is not inconsistent with great filters, a great filter is why nobody else is there to be one. Great filter is anywhere at all in the progress of life from pre-life chemistry to stable interplanetary expansion; filters behind us, for example multicellular life or having dry land so we can invent fire, are still potential great filters and they would leave no space ruins to find. That said, my assumption is lots of little filters that add up. Eleven filters behind us each with 10% pass rates is enough to make us the peak of civilisation in this galaxy; eleven more between us and Kardashev III would make the universe seem empty.
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- throwaway94275 10mo ago
  One could argue modern social media like Tiktok and Snapchat is an evolution of reality TV, in app/smartphone form.
- tw04 10mo ago
  > Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations? I’d say we’ve already got measurable statistics. When half of genz isn’t dating or married, it’s signaling trouble. https://aibm.org/commentary/gen-zs-romance-gap-why-nearly-half-of-young-men-arent-dating/ https://aibm.org/commentary/gen-zs-romance-gap-why-nearly-ha... Now, we can discuss if that’s good or bad for the planet, but it’s not great for humanity.
  - XorNot 10mo ago
    Yes I'm sure reality TV did it and not cost of living meaning they have little money for entertainment and definitely will never purchase their own home.
    - tw04 10mo ago
      Yes, college aged men who aren’t in a relationship are avoiding pursuing one because they’re thinking about whether or not they’ll be able to afford a house some day. It definitely has nothing to do with social media and dating apps breaking human interaction.
    - joquarky 10mo ago
      Please keep the sarcasm on Reddit.
    - ben_w 10mo ago
      If "will never purchase their own home" was a reason to not have kids, many more people in previous generations would've been childless. What has changed is expectations. The room I rented in my final year of university, and that was only 20 years ago, would (I think) no longer be legal: too poorly insulated. Very cheap though, I think it was £40 a week? Even after adjusting that for inflation since then, that was cheap. But it's (I think?) no longer possible. Expectations for things that can be bought have gone up faster than our ability to buy them. We didn't used to all expect to be able to fly somewhere on holiday. We didn't used to all expect to have a phone — and I don't just mean a smartphone, or even a mobile phone, my first partner was a bit older than me, born in the 70s, their family didn't have a landline. All the streaming services are expensive, I grew up with 4 free-to-air channels and no internet (not even a dialup modem) let alone broadband that you need to stream video, no cable TV or satellite TV. Smart bulbs for mood lighting can quickly become expensive, I grew up in an upper middle class house and yet it had one, singular, dimming switch for the incandescent bulb it took. A microwave was a fancy accessory, not standard, when I was a kid. It all adds up. Also, our expectations for relationships have gone up faster than humans could ever change, as our expectations follow not reality but rather perception. Sure, the perception was already off when I was young, we had unrealistic body goals in high-gloss magazines and Hollywood glamour and unrealistic romances in stories and unrealistic sex in porn, but even with that the quantity one could consume was relatively limited… and now we have the highest-rated content from our always-on social media accounts, A/B tested to be more appealing than reality, and even when it isn't AI-enhanced or photoshopped, it's still the final cut to the cutting room floor of having to deal with flawed real people.
- jjkaczor 10mo ago
  "Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations?" The jury is still out on that one... failed "business" person who was also a "reality TV star" - and now appears to be in some level of dementia - currently in charge of the single biggest military-industrial complex on the planet...
- coldtea 10mo ago
  >Catastrophazing new media hasn't gone out of fashion yet. Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations? And it was. We're now even further down in that downfall, and most content is "reality TV" style now: influencers, parasocial relationships, IG, TikTok, OF, news vlogs and podcasts that are about the anchor an not the content, and so on...
- lqstuart 10mo ago
  The “Great Filter” is the fact that humans are nowhere near as remarkable nor “intelligence” as necessary as we want to think
- joquarky 10mo ago
  What do you mean? Jerry Springer theatrics has infiltrated politics, and I would judge our civilization as being in a downward trend as a result.
ben_w 10mo ago
I've read that short story, but can't remember enough details to search for it. Humans do find alien radio signals, but they keep going dark after a brief window; the narrator suspects why, because they witness fellow humans disappearing into simulations far more fun than reality could ever be.
- TheEaterOfSouls 10mo ago
  Not quite the same concept, but The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (published in 1909, but still pretty relevant imo) is about where this all might lead, with humans living in almost total isolation and only communicating through "the machine", which mostly sounds like modern social media lol. It's terrifying. Also really demonstrates how static human nature actually is.

Would be funny if the "great filter" is not nukes or some other weapon, but social media. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

Nasrudith 10mo ago

The Great Filter is just bullshit until we come across space ruins to prove that something has been filtering out civilizations. It is possible that we are just the "precursors" without any giants to stand upon the shoulders of. Catastrophazing new media hasn't gone out of fashion yet. Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations?

walterbell 10mo ago
Any real-world side effects of Reality TV?
- ben_w 10mo ago
  Arguably the election of Trump.
ben_w 10mo ago
The absence is the evidence. Being a precursor is not inconsistent with great filters, a great filter is why nobody else is there to be one. Great filter is anywhere at all in the progress of life from pre-life chemistry to stable interplanetary expansion; filters behind us, for example multicellular life or having dry land so we can invent fire, are still potential great filters and they would leave no space ruins to find. That said, my assumption is lots of little filters that add up. Eleven filters behind us each with 10% pass rates is enough to make us the peak of civilisation in this galaxy; eleven more between us and Kardashev III would make the universe seem empty.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
throwaway94275 10mo ago
One could argue modern social media like Tiktok and Snapchat is an evolution of reality TV, in app/smartphone form.
tw04 10mo ago
> Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations? I’d say we’ve already got measurable statistics. When half of genz isn’t dating or married, it’s signaling trouble. https://aibm.org/commentary/gen-zs-romance-gap-why-nearly-half-of-young-men-arent-dating/ https://aibm.org/commentary/gen-zs-romance-gap-why-nearly-ha... Now, we can discuss if that’s good or bad for the planet, but it’s not great for humanity.
- XorNot 10mo ago
  Yes I'm sure reality TV did it and not cost of living meaning they have little money for entertainment and definitely will never purchase their own home.
  - tw04 10mo ago
    Yes, college aged men who aren’t in a relationship are avoiding pursuing one because they’re thinking about whether or not they’ll be able to afford a house some day. It definitely has nothing to do with social media and dating apps breaking human interaction.
  - joquarky 10mo ago
    Please keep the sarcasm on Reddit.
  - ben_w 10mo ago
    If "will never purchase their own home" was a reason to not have kids, many more people in previous generations would've been childless. What has changed is expectations. The room I rented in my final year of university, and that was only 20 years ago, would (I think) no longer be legal: too poorly insulated. Very cheap though, I think it was £40 a week? Even after adjusting that for inflation since then, that was cheap. But it's (I think?) no longer possible. Expectations for things that can be bought have gone up faster than our ability to buy them. We didn't used to all expect to be able to fly somewhere on holiday. We didn't used to all expect to have a phone — and I don't just mean a smartphone, or even a mobile phone, my first partner was a bit older than me, born in the 70s, their family didn't have a landline. All the streaming services are expensive, I grew up with 4 free-to-air channels and no internet (not even a dialup modem) let alone broadband that you need to stream video, no cable TV or satellite TV. Smart bulbs for mood lighting can quickly become expensive, I grew up in an upper middle class house and yet it had one, singular, dimming switch for the incandescent bulb it took. A microwave was a fancy accessory, not standard, when I was a kid. It all adds up. Also, our expectations for relationships have gone up faster than humans could ever change, as our expectations follow not reality but rather perception. Sure, the perception was already off when I was young, we had unrealistic body goals in high-gloss magazines and Hollywood glamour and unrealistic romances in stories and unrealistic sex in porn, but even with that the quantity one could consume was relatively limited… and now we have the highest-rated content from our always-on social media accounts, A/B tested to be more appealing than reality, and even when it isn't AI-enhanced or photoshopped, it's still the final cut to the cutting room floor of having to deal with flawed real people.
jjkaczor 10mo ago
"Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations?" The jury is still out on that one... failed "business" person who was also a "reality TV star" - and now appears to be in some level of dementia - currently in charge of the single biggest military-industrial complex on the planet...
coldtea 10mo ago
>Catastrophazing new media hasn't gone out of fashion yet. Remember when it was Reality TV that was supposed to be the downfall of civilizations? And it was. We're now even further down in that downfall, and most content is "reality TV" style now: influencers, parasocial relationships, IG, TikTok, OF, news vlogs and podcasts that are about the anchor an not the content, and so on...
lqstuart 10mo ago
The “Great Filter” is the fact that humans are nowhere near as remarkable nor “intelligence” as necessary as we want to think
joquarky 10mo ago
What do you mean? Jerry Springer theatrics has infiltrated politics, and I would judge our civilization as being in a downward trend as a result.

ben_w 10mo ago

I've read that short story, but can't remember enough details to search for it. Humans do find alien radio signals, but they keep going dark after a brief window; the narrator suspects why, because they witness fellow humans disappearing into simulations far more fun than reality could ever be.

TheEaterOfSouls 10mo ago
Not quite the same concept, but The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (published in 1909, but still pretty relevant imo) is about where this all might lead, with humans living in almost total isolation and only communicating through "the machine", which mostly sounds like modern social media lol. It's terrifying. Also really demonstrates how static human nature actually is.