The Great Filter - A Return to the Fermi Paradox

Here I return to the Fermi Paradox and go a little more in depth to talk about The Great Filter - one of the explanations for the Fermi Paradox which says that along the road to intelligent life, there are barriers that prevent advancement.
In one instance, we've already passed the Great Filter. In the other, it lies ahead of us.
Both depressing scenarios in different ways.

[@85Funkadelic]

There are two possibilities either we are alone in the universe or we are not, either one is terrifying. ~ Issac Asamov

[@Shauneroo]

Arthur C. Clarke.

[@amirahmohamed1888]

Why?

[@maloxi1472]

​@@amirahmohamed1888 I suppose it's pretty obvious to you why the possibility of aliens existing might be terrifying so will only focus on the other stuff. Here is a very low resolution view: If we are alone (present tense), then it means that either: -Earth is the only viable natural celestial body: if we fuck it up, we are screwed in theory and in practice. Imagine being a passenger on board the only submarine in a sea without shores 😱 -Life isn't an emergent phenomenon on a viable planet. Did I just say God ?! 😰😱✝️ -Life can spontaneously emerge but is extremely transient on a cosmic timescale: i.e. we are all gonna die soon 😱

[@xiphactinusaudax1045]

That wasn't Isaac Asimov

[@Tcarichards]

I’ve always considered the vast distances of space to be the real Great Filter.

[@jeffbenton6183]

That's a good assessment - the problem with that conclusion is that, as huge as space is compared to what's in it, it's just not huge enough. Fermi's original discussion was based on a simple fact - the Milky Way is *only* 100,000 light years across (200K ly at the most). That means it could easily be colonized (completely) in only 100 million years - which means that "they" should be in our own Solar System right now, because some of them are much older than we are. There are over 200 *billion* stars in the galaxy including several billion Sun-like (i.e. "G-type" or "yellow dwarf") stars. Of those billions of Sun-like stars, many of them are over a billion years older than our Sun (and the galaxy as a whole is about 8.5 billion years older than Earth). The conclusion that the galaxy could be colonized in only 100 million years sounds like a stretch, so let me explain it in greater depth: Suppose that your civilization has unlocked the ability to send generation ships out to a star system 10 light years away at an average speed of one-tenth the speed of light. Suppose that your civilization then spent the next *1,000* years just hanging out in the first system and in the new system (as well as other systems within 10 ly of the first system), just focused on building up the new satellite civilization in the neighboring system. Then suppose that the daughter-system started sending out its own generation ships at 0.1c at the end of those 1,000 years. The whole species would then be expanding outwards by 10 ly every 1100 years. Suppose the galaxy is 200,000 light years across - divide by 10, that's 20,000. Now multiply 20K by 1.1K and that's only 22 million years. Even if it's much harder than that, it still could be done in less than 100 million years. Now remember that other intelligent species could have had *ten times* that amount of time to pull this off. Now remember that there could be *billions* of such species. So for something to be either the Great Filter or even part of it, it has to explain why that project I just described is basically impossible. Maybe intelligent species never get to the point where the can do that (literally *all* of them), maybe they never want to do that (again, literally *all* of them) or maybe they simply don't exist (except for us, and - for some unknown reason - other species that are roughly our age)

[@chumdog6060]

Like the civilizations tend to destroy themselves soon after they gain the ability to do so

[@AndiDuck]

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” - Carl Sagan, Cosmos

[@jaymondsperling8602]

I feel like the fact that we are worried and aware of the Fermi paradox is a good thing. It means we know what we are up against and we can pass through the great filter if it does exist

[@xiphactinusaudax1045]

Don't you think other extraterrestrials would be aware too? Either it's something out of or nearly out of our control, or we've already overcome many of the filters that can be thrown at us

[@charlessanders]

I'm surprised no one speaks of how easy it would be for an advanced civilization to hide themselves from us.

[@planetfall5056]

What do you mean? Unless they have broken the laws of thermodynamics then their civilization will still output waste heat. There is a great video called Hidden Aliens by Issac Arthur which describes how hiding a civilization is pretty difficult. With pretty much modern tech we could see even a small single planet civilization from light years away based on pollutants in the atmosphere or the extra heat given off by industry.

[@williamjames4031]

Planetfall You are wrong again, a type 4 civilization would be totally invinsible to us.

[@planetfall5056]

how? Even if they where using Matrioshka brains instead of Dyson clouds so their waste heat is just a few degrees above background... We would see the effect of that galaxies gravity by the way other galaxies interact with the cold one. Sure it would be damned hard to spot, but not impossible.

[@bkbland1626]

Not easy at all, if you're intellectually honest.

[@andrewsallans589]

Ya, I dont see any conceivable way to hide entire civilizations without breaking the current laws of physics, which aliens would still have to use. Now they may find other ways to manipulate space but they still have to follow the basic rules. I think the best answer is we just haven't looked hard enough yet, life is common, intelligence is rare.

[@quandary1382]

I know this is an old video, but you mentioned artificial intelligence being a possible great filter. That doesn't work though, an AI that wiped us out would still exist and evolve and go on to "colonise" the entire galaxy.

[@berniemckinley4988]

Fun fact - when Joe made this he had around 300 subscribers. How awesome to see him hit those numbers with an explosion

[@heliomoonwave]

I don't think it comes down to these two possibilities. Intelligent life may very well achieve potential levels we can't understand yet, and this is no less feasible than assuming we are utterly alone or in some sort of inevitable death spiral as a species. The fact that we can't see signs of earth-like intelligence all over the galaxy is not grounds for getting depressed.

[@joescott]

Good point.

[@davidhuber6251]

Given the staggeringly huge numbers involved... I think it is safe to assume there is intelligent life out there but the nearest one is so darn far away we could never interact with them.

[@GavStaR79]

Unfortunately sending messages at light speed which we are capable of doing is still god awful slow when sending across the vastness of space....space is just too big that even light travels slowly. It would take 4.3 years for a message to be sent to our nearest star..Proxima Centauri and another 4.3 years for them to get that reply back to us.

[@RayTech70]

Things I reflect on: 1) The Milky Way is actually quite old, as we have stars that show it was actually one of the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang. 2) We have scanned the closest 100,000 galaxies for waste heat that would be present for type 2 or 3 civilizations and found zip. Of course many of them we are now seeing them as they were in the past, but with that sheer number the results are discouraging. As for our own signals from TV / Radio-- we have barely sliced into our own galaxy with signals (the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across). I just wonder if a day would come in the future when boom-- we see a signal that finally reaches us. It's truly a fascinating concept and I love Joe's take on it.

[@robosergTV]

there is no paradox. The universe is just too big for interstellar flight or communication.

[@KevinsDisobedience]

As simple as that sounds, you might just be right.

[@robosergTV]

what technology? Did humans visited other solar systems yet? Oh wait, we cant even visit Mars

[@robosergTV]

thats hardly an argument. If you are talking about generation ships, that will have to fly for hundreds of years its just a wild fantasy

[@Garium87]

Why would it be a "wild fantasy". It is technologically possible. Cryogenic stasis may also be possible at some point.

[@junwhang6293]

Fermi pardox is not a question of interstellar travel. Its not really about vast space either. It's about failing to detect any kind of signals from other stars and galaxies indicating radio waves. So only thing required is radio technology (or similar electromagnetic transmitting technology) and civilization capable of transmitting and another civilization on another star system capable of detecting that signal.

[@actionms8566]

The solution to the Fermi-Paradox is pretty simple in my opinion: It took about 2 to 3 billion years on the perfect planet for a technological civilization to spawn. And the circumstances that led to the exogenesis of us Humans were quite special. I believe that there is a ton of planets that are hospitable and sustain life. But the chances for life on a planet to become a technological civilisation are infinitesimally slim. We might inhabit a universe that is full of life, but only animals roam the majority of planets.

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Typical human, thinks he's special. ;)

[@douglasphillips5870]

I think the great filter can also represent hurdles to developing space flight. There are a great number of developments that are needed before you even get to rockets. It could be easy to miss just one criterion and a species is forever planet bound.

[@KevinsDisobedience]

Well said, Doug. We like to poke fun at NASA for still using chemical rockets--which is admittedly a bad idea; however, it is no small feat to escape Earth's gravity, let alone travel through the great voids of outer space.

[@SayinWTF]

The Fermi paradox was proposed in 1950 and you know what else was happening around that time? The cold war. Did the psychological stress of this period have something to do with it becomming a mainstream idea? I would say more than likely.

[@beals6631]

Matt M ... That’s Silly

[@tomski787]

There's a briIIiant sci-fi noveI by Stephen Baxter caIIed "Space" in which the Fermi paradox is addressed, and ulimately solved...kinda. I'm not about to spoil it for those of you who may read it, and just because it's fiction doesn't make it any less valid than the solutions presented here, (in fact, it may be THE most valid explanation!) but I have to warn you, it's as dark as some of these solutions... Great work, Joe, looking forward to more!

[@KevinsDisobedience]

The Fermi paradox is also the basis for Alistair Reynolds first novel, Revelation Space. In my mind, he's the best sci-fi writer out there!

[@marccolten9801]

Go ahead and spoil it for us. My reading is backed up I'll never get to it. Just post a spoiler alert.

[@dendroxden440]

Here's the answer to the Fermi Paradox: distance. The closest star to us is 4.2 lightyears away. That would take 4.2 years of traveling at lightspeed (which you'd need to have quite the space ship to be able to survive such a thing). Not to mention that space travel is EXTREMELY dangerous and extremely hard to do (even to a rock that we see in the sky every night). So it's impossible to ever meet another intelligent civilization unless they are within a few lightyears distance and we have lightspeed or ftl travel. Or if we could just warp space and time. Even if either of these things are physically possible, a civilization would have to be WAY more advanced than us. We may be able to talk with them if we both have a form of communication that's instantaneous and we can find each other (which is like trying to find a specific piece of sand on a large beach)

[@KevinsDisobedience]

Amen! Somehow people seem to think super-intelligence automatically trumps basic physics.

[@heliomoonwave]

If we haven't been able to create a unified theory of physics yet as a species, then how can we make generalizations about the limits of physics?

[@atheistsanonymous5376]

You never considered my favorite theory that we just devolped really early or quickly as a species.

[@davidcatanach2620]

This is possible. But unlikely. The universe is 13.8B years old. Our planet is 4.5B years old, so there would be other planets with a good 7B years head start on us. We’re the Johnny Come Lately’s in the greater scheme of things. Which makes the whole ‘where is everybody?’ even more perplexing

[@KevinsDisobedience]

There must be something like the great filter, but what it is is anybody's guess. Like most things in life, it's probably a combination of the ideas floated by conventional wisdom. Perhaps space is just too darn big for us to communicate with one another. I don't think anybody, not even our astronauts, can truly appreciate the immensity of the of the universe and the voids in-between. That said, if Physics and Biology are to be trusted, then life, even complex life, must necessarily arise and thrive throughout the galaxy.

[@harshitsrivastava4386]

Hi, you don't know me but if you're reading this and have some time to spare, it would be a great help to an existential question that I've been facing for a long time. I think I see a "Great Filter" in front of us in the form of "Reward Death". To understand what I mean by 'Reward Death', we will have to understand the relation between consciousness and reward. Now, for the sake of simplicity, we will divide the human experience into two parts.One deals with the mental capacity of performing actions and the other deals with reward( say reptilian brain. ) One can easily self reflect to realise that all his actions and thoughts are either to propel himself towards more reward positive future or away from some reward negative experience or possibility. This method of reward worked pretty good for all conscious beings that evolution has produced so far. Now, by observing the exponential nature of the increment of adaptability ( or problem solving capacity ) of the living system, that we are a part of. One can easily entertain the possibility of so called “Singularity by ASI”. Assuming you have solved the ‘Alignment Problem’, i.e. you can command it as per you desire. As soon as you get your hands on the device, a very interesting thing will happen and the device will act as a ‘reward hack’. As the basic nature of brain is to shoot for the most reward positive future and avoid any reward negative. Your conscious feeling will have a very little disturbed trajectory towards more and more reward positive state. The more reward positive you feel the more reward positive you want to feel. Eventually leading to reward induced coma like state that is ‘reward death’. This reward death will not be much different than overdosing of opium, cocaine, or any other reward hacking drug. One might think now that he is aware of the fact. He will choose not to go in that direction just like one knows the happiness associated with drugs and yet choose not to take them. But your body don’t feel a natural desire to consume drug thus providing you with a choice. This is not the same case with your natural desires for example SEX. The more sexually aroused you are the more sexually aroused you want to feel and when you hit orgasm your brain breaks the cycle and you return to normal again At the point of organism if you are provided with a choice not to break the cycle.. You will choose to prolong it a little more and then a little more and then a little more... In the condition 'Reward death' your brain will stop the process of thinking and if somebody successfully force out of it you will I want to fall back in it with a urge worst then any addiction case we have faced so far.

[@gandriede17]

There is the possibility that we have already passed through the Great Filter. It could be multi-cellular life. Most of life's time on Earth was single cells. See Carl Sagan's Cosmos for the calendar. So, there is hope.

[@Rouge31]

I've got one problem with this theory : it says that if we find alien life somewhere it would mean that the Great Filter takes place AFTER its current evolution stage. But why ? If we find only one alien life form, it would still mean than life is a very rare thing in the universe. So this alien life could also have passed the Great Filter - just like us, couldn't it ? (Btw sorry for my English)

[@rekenney100]

Why is it that whatever caused life to appear on Earth in the first place isn't happening here all the time? Did the Earth go through some "mystic" period when only then life could spring up from nothing?

[@mackmckinnon4407]

I under the understanding that the universe is so vast that randomness would exhaust itself and start over more than once. So even if it only happened once in all randomness it would have to happen again. that would make us not alone but to what extent

[@nosuchthing8]

Even if there IS a universal great filter, why wouldn't some species beam out something about what did them in?

[@joelthemole3020]

Years ago I read a scifi book, dont remember the name, or even know if this is a legit theory out there, but it had this idea that as a species develops technologically the number of individuals it takes to wipe out the whole population gets smaller and smaller, so eventually it is nearly inevitable that someone with access to the wrong button is sure to kill the planet. As Terry Pratchett said: “Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.” This idea could be a potential hurdle or filter that all intelligent life has to overcome. If you go back a thousand years in human history, even if every single human on earth decided to wipe out all life here, it probably would not have been possible. During the early industrial revolution it might have been possible if every "advanced" nation working together tried to do it, by the height of the cold war a single nation could probably do it, and in our current age we have relatively small corporations that have enough space presence that they could probably manage to destroy the earth just by pushing space rocks towards us. It is not hard to extrapolate out and see that in the near future there may be multiple individuals, or multiple very small groups, that each have the power to wipe out all life on the planet. The theory goes that as more and more people get this power, it inevitably will fall into the hands of someone who will push the button and end all life here. This idea kind of goes along with your filter idea, but it includes a balance/race portion as well. Basically to avoid this fate every species has to either balance technology and the mentality of every member of their population, or race to come up with a way around this before that button gets pushed. So the answer might be things like getting the total mental health of every member of your population to a level where not a single member of your population would consider ending the whole world (lol @ us), moving everyone into a simulation of some sort where this simply wasnt allowed and no interaction with the physical universe was possible, or maybe colonizing multiple planets and spreading out so that wiping out a single planet doesnt end the species. Although this last one is more of a temporary solution without some other solution to back it up, because as technology advances far enough it is seems likely that a single person or small group could have access to technology that could wipe out multiple planets, their galaxy, or even the whole universe. Fun times.

[@342wru89fsdfdssdf54e]

Yay thanks for this

[@Fl00rMaster]

Found this channel. Like this channel. Keep it up :)

[@joescott]

Hey, thanks!

[@bkbland1626]

Good last line, and it always applies.

[@DavidJones-tp7td]

Is there any hope for FTL; either by breaching the light speed barrier or circumventing it?

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Yes there is, at least in theory. Needs lots of energy but we're pretty good at that. Time is the enemy. ;)

[@Lukomeyan]

As long as we have world leaders who believe in conspiracy theories instead of science....... We're moving closer and closer to that point of no return, where we're screwed no matter what we do.

[@marklott8551]

Edward Snowden said we might not be able to see aliens because of encryption. Maybe he is right, and they're everywhere and we just can't tell.

[@joescott]

+Mark Lott There was an interview with him on the Star Talk podcast recently. Really interesting guy.

[@Icybubba]

+Joe Scott I say we are to primitive for them to show their faces yet, but once we expand to places like Luna, Mars, and Venus then they might care to respond.

[@everythingmatters6308]

The great filter: The inhabitants of a planet must learn that all life is part of an interconnected web that must cooperate and live together in harmony and union. Every single action has consequences and affects the whole. If this principle is not put into practice, self annihilation is inevitable.

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Tell that to a lion while it's chewing your leg off. ;)

[@username82765]

The other Hypothesis is that life is common but intelligence is a bad evolutionary strategy therefore very rare. Look at life on Earth, things like the ability to move and sensing your surroundings developed independently across thousands of different species. But our level of intelligence only developed in one subspecies. And Not only is our intelligence our biggest risk to wiping our species out. There's also a good chance we might take a large portion of all current life with us.

[@forger42]

It's so weird to hear these old Joe videos with such crappy audio. The content was already good back then though

[@Flyanb]

Enough planning, foresight and action, ha we are doomed!

[@342wru89fsdfdssdf54e]

Can you do a video on the Kardashev scale?

[@joescott]

MLP Luigi | Happy Wars Good call!

[@jackprier7727]

It would take insane resources and time to span the solar system to any great degree, much less 100s of 1000s of years to span a tiny bit of the galaxy. Meanwhile, we increase the pace of Earth's destruction.

[@SpaceMike3]

You've come so far Joe

[@RODERICKMOLASAR]

Was that actually Enrico Fermi there in your video?

[@markc1548]

Almost every suggested solution may be partly correct, But I like to lean towards THE GALAXY IS MASSIVE argument. As of February 2019 with multiple agencies doing there best to find exoplanets and even then, "Yeah we found a dot" or a wobble only means the presence of a planet and not much hard data due to massive distances and still only 0.036% of our galaxy has been searched that's only 1 part of 2,777. So yeah we haven't found life yet because we actually haven't started looking. And that's just our galaxy out of an estimated 125 billion galaxies, it's like sitting on the worlds biggest beach, taking a tiny pinch of sand and then saying there are no crabs on the beach.

[@marwennaceur530]

If there is others civilisations this means that there is a first one that appeared before all the others, so we could be the first ... we could also be the second and there is only one other one better than us but it is more probable that it is far away to ever see it ...we could be the third and the other two are also too far away ( billions of light years far) ...there is an infinite possibility of our rank and seeing how big is the universe it is very logical that we dont meet any of those civ.... i dont see any paradox..

[@RRW359]

Have you done a video on Zoo theory yet? Maybe I've seen to much Star Trek, but to me it sounds like it's the most likely reason. We must also consider that even in our "globalised" world, there are STILL groups in the Amazon, South Pacific, and Adaman islands that haven't contacted and know nothing about the rest of civilization.

[@wschultis]

Hey Joe!, in one of your videos you commented that your wife prefers to let you sleep in between the door and her side of the bed. You mused that she must have been thinking of you as her big tough protector against an intruder. I have a different theory. I think that her desire may be a carryover from a much earlier stage in our history when the wild world in which we lived was dominated by felines of various savage types. After we left the safety of the treetops were vulnerable to the wild cats who had developed a taste for human flesh. For thousands of years, we suffered through long nights of terror with no real protection from the terrible prospect of being eaten before daybreak. Prehistoric human bones have been found with telltale sabertooth marks along the back of the skull, which was the preferred way in which our bodies were dragged away by hungry cats. There was only was hope for survival - a predator might satisfy its hunger by getting another one of us humans first. That's right, your wife's desire to put you between the door and her side of the bed is, I think, a carryover from those desperate days when a woman might survive an attack at night by losing her man instead. After all, it is only a woman who could bear a child; while any number of men could fertilise her again, once the man she was with had the misfortune of being eaten by a predatory cat. Do you think that this theory of mine may have a basis in fact?

[@joescott]

It's not something I'd ever run by my feminist wife, but it's not the craziest idea I've ever heard.

[@wschultis]

I have much respect for those many generations of our prehistoric ancestors and their struggles. Back in those brave days we think of the man of the house as the one who, in organized groups of other men, hunted food to feed their families; but a documentary I watched suggested that while it was the men who provided meat, that it was the gathering females who actually supplied the majority of the day-to-day calories consumed in the form of gathered roots and berries. In this point of view, the primary role of a man was as a protector, and only secondarily as a food provider. Men would step up and willingly die together in combat in order to preserve the DNA of their offspring. This is certainly true today in Africa among lions where prides of females tolerate big males who do little hunting but get the "lions share" of available food. Why? Because they regularly clear out jackals and other predatory competitors who are a threat to their feline communities. Humans today are at the top of the food chain and have little to fear from other species such as bears and wolves, but this was not the way it was back in our early primate days. Today we take our cosy nighttime beds for granted, but we owe this end-of-the-day comfort to the steady progress of our brave and resourceful distant primate ancestors to whom bedtime was anything but cosy. It is 3:00 in the morning as I write these words in the comfort of my comfortable bedroom; but I owe this great privilege to my forefather families and what they endured on their makeshift beds throughout their fretful nights filled with stinging bugs and very real dangers. Seriously, we never give them a thought and we really should.

[@andromedav.884]

William Schultis are you implying that Joe’s wife doesn’t love him ? 😜

[@kelliyarbrough1111]

Ok I'm not even close to being a scientist lol really, but every time I watch a video about the possibility of life outside of earth it seems like we're only using the rules or measurements that require OUR planets life... In my opinion I think that we should (if we haven't already, again not a scientist) think about the possibility that maybe life on other planets in other galaxies somewhere far away, beings don't require oxygen or water or even all the nutrients and light ect... In order to be created and survive long enough to become intelligent beings. Anyways, that's just something I've always wondered about...

[@larryshaw6517]

Maybe we are not able to build the right kind of radio.

[@bikerboy4161]

so I guess this is where mass effect got the idea of the reapers from.

[@firecloud77]

OR, there really is a Super Intelligence that is independent of this universe and that created it.

[@seff6533]

What if we're the first intelligent beings ever?

[@russellstuart9796]

hey Joe, have you seen the new Star Wars movie yet?

[@zayanaya8957]

the whole universe could be a graveyard

[@xxheartbrokexx100]

Moog 24db low pass ladder. The one true great filter.

[@AJsAdventuresinAsia]

Good stuff!

[@johnmoesche3959]

This is why I need a stunt double.

[@aarondrong]

I liked right on the "doooomed"

[@gerardogascon4048]

U said it right. Let's get our shit together

[@junwhang6293]

Yes the great filter is likely to be resource exhaustion. To sustain an advanced industrial civilization vast amount of resources are required. Mankind has only narrow window of time to develop technology for long term presence in deep space, where by they can access far greater resources of entire solar system. Failing that, earth's easily mined resources will be exhausted and the global civilization on earth will collapse. Of course not everyone will die, and humans will probably be around for much longer in much smaller numbers, but they will not be able to recreate advanced civilization which can attempt space colonization due to sheer lack of resources and concommitant critical level of organization and concentration of manpower necessary for that kind of endeavor.

[@planetfall5056]

I don't really see how that could end a civilization though. It does not take too much tech to be able to recycle most materials and if your desperate you can dig pretty deep. Unless your on a world mostly made of ice or silicates I don't really see how an early industrial age civilization could exhausts a whole planet's resources.

[@kylenoe2234]

We need a nuclear fallout scenario to happen. It'll make us start over and do it right, love thy neighbor, love everyone....

[@DraconaiMac]

I like that. In the best scenario, its still time to get our shit together, as a species. We may be the alien "gods" another race is looking for. Let's try to be good ones. Better start that here.

[@XxTheAwokenOnexX]

Or maybe Aliens are too intelligent not to make contact with humans lolz

[@jrgreatwhite]

If a Life form was intelligent enough to travel the Universe we would be so insignificant, why would they even want to make contact? At best we have the intelligence to send a person to Mars. Therefore a comparison of Us vs a life form that can travel across the Universe would be like US compare to a amoebae.

[@hankitecttv4770]

like my friend and i when we are drunk haha we're scientists when drunk ahaha

[@a_multidimentional_mess5561]

Bruh do you have one moment where you're like oh I'll live tmr XDDDDD

[@daniellabra4186]

And you should visit year 2020...

[@zeusdarkgod7727]

I don't believe in the great filter, it would indicate that every species takes/has to take the exact same path. Many blunders have occurred on our timeline to get us where we are today, lets say for instance the world still had one giant super content. That alone could have helped information travel so much faster progressing us quicker, as well as less of a chance of competing for resources. Im sure we would have still had wars for a time, but like every country it just kind of putter out after a while forming a central government. AI may evolve to see themselves superior and kill us (but again that assumes every AI evolves the same) But i like the idea that they would always question if it was a test by their creators for we could not possibly be as dumb as we appear, and even if they are 99.9 percent certain that it was not they would not risk everything on a maybe. Maybe our AI will but to say its the same across the universe every time would be silly. If a great filter exists it has to be the universe itself putting us in our place as some sort of higher intelligence.

[@alexanderkrizel6187]

Ah. Fair enough. :-)

[@carlospinheirotorres9499]

2:14 this was 7 years ago... 🤯

[@prismaticbeetle3194]

for me the most logical reason is .. we are in a shity neighborhood ... simple as that we are in a very barren patch of space AND we are simply ignored by aliens

[@joescott]

Could be!

[@brianmoore581]

Might be a good thing, too!

[@stevechester3504]

personally I think the great filter is the most likely scenario of the Fermi paradox unfortunately because of global warming

[@Garium87]

All the CO² we release now by burning fossil fuels has been in the atmosphere before it was extracted by plants. Back then, the world was much warmer and filled with life. Of course, methane and especially methane hydrate does make things more complicated and such a rapid increase of temperatures would end catastrophically anyway, but the fear of extinction seems quite exaggerated to me.

[@stevechester3504]

Collapse would meet the great filter because we were become a primitive society after collapse

[@Garium87]

steve chester Yes, but we could rebuild and learn from previous mistakes if we don't die out. Also, I don't think a collapse of civilization is likely either. Even if all Co² would end in the atmosphere again and all ice would melt, there would be plenty of soil above the sea level left. Antarctica, a 14.000.000 km² big continent would even become green and hospitable again. *Most of earth's history, the average world-temperature has been around 20 degree Celsius higher than they are right now.* www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228392-300-hyperwarming-climate-could-turn-earths-poles-green/ So yes, the damage would be gigantic for us and many species would die out but I don't see how it could cause human civilisation to collapse. Well, unless the higher temperature of the sea would unleash the gigantic amounts of methane hydrate, stored in the oceans and permafrost soil. That could end us.

[@stevechester3504]

Collapse would most likely end up to extinction before we rebuild again.

[@marccolten9801]

So when Fermi asks a question everybody gasps. When Ancient Aliens answers it, nobody likes it.

[@panzer_steel3852]

I don’t mind being all alone

[@frazerherewini68]

I be leave in the bible , and it says we are privileged in the universe. I do like science too though .

[@tinglestingles]

Just too far away - I suspect it will be fully understood in the next 80 years.

[@Burt1038]

The Great Filter, brought to you by K & N. Guaranteed to leave your rice burner free of little green men or your money back!

[@edgardaspilcueta738]

Good video. Please watch your language. Kids may watch it

[@joescott]

Hehe... I almost never curse on this channel, really. And when I do, I usually bleep it out (I just think it's funnier). This was definitely the exception.

[@KevinsDisobedience]

Joe, I say curse freely, just not excessively. You're a great role model for kids on KZbin. And guess what, kids, we adults curse from time to time--betcha didn't know, shhh. (Sorry about the sarcasm).

[@dranomilkshake]

and read the fucking comments shithead.

[@LordSlag]

Get our shit together? HA! Hello from late 2020...ain't gonna happen.

[@jonathanwheeler4767]

we are, we are here, we are here fucked

[@thepatriot.5112]

Let's see. We have no ability to travel anywhere even remotely close to lightspeed. We will likely never be able to. But we'd need to travel far faster than lightspeed to ever get anywhere. We have mass. Either way would still require more energy then we could ever harness, infinite amounts, and far greater than is possessed in the universe! Voyagers haven't even left our solar system yet.(they thought they did, but now know they haven't, not yet, but close, relatively speaking, maybe another 10 years to break thru, if they are not pushed back) And they've been traveling for 40+ years. Only plusable method would be creating generational ships. They would have to be massive! Far greater than all of humans creations combined. Massive resources we do not have. The venture is more probable to fail than succeed. You'd have to assume the first attempt would be successful. That, after generation after generation, we'd finally arrived at a planet that had life, much less intelligent life. If life were found, and it wasn't intelligent, would the extreme costs and risks be worth it? And what if the planet wasn't conducive to human life? Illiminating the possibility of colonization? These people would have nothing to live for. And not only that, but they'd likely never be able to even live on the planet, even if they wanted to, being that existing in space zero gravity, there whole life, for generations. It would be like people out at an empty sea. Even if they came accross land, they'd never be able to set foot on it. And if we did find another intelligent life form, and they weren't friendly to our presence? In all likelihood, the people of a generational ship probably wouldn't survive traveling thru our own solar system. But what if they did? That's the easy part. There are things along the way. But once out of the solar system. There's just nothingness. Generations would come and go, in the nothingness of space. That would be their entire existance. Work, sleep, repeat. Would they even be able to develop, expand, grow, in such a repressing environment? The communication to the voyagers currently takes 18 hours and that's with the best coms, and really low bitrates! (S & X bands!) That's right, only bit rate. So forget things like normal comms. Music streaming, nope. TV, video, nope. Not a hope in hell. Maybe, if some other form of super powerful come were able to be created, like maybe a Lazer with ultra pinpoint accuracy, could slightly I comms, but since nothing can travel faster than lightspeed, eventually, they would get to a point where comms would take years. 12 years in fact. Conversation would go something like this. Ship: we've been struck by space depris. What would you like us to do? 12 years later NASA resieves message and replies. 24 years after the ship sends original message, they resieve NASA's reply. Now, that's just heading to nearest star. Now let's say they are traveling to nearest habitable planet 40 light years away. AND! They are somehow able to travel such a enormous craft at the same speed the voyagers are, which is really fast. It would take these humans around 750'000 years to even reach it. 3/4 of a million years. That's even assuming they can travel that fast! And that doesn't even figure in deceleration protocol. Which basically would take the same time and energy it took to accelerate to that speed anyways. And they got to that speed by risky slingshot manuvers anyways. A ship of that size probably couldn't pull it off as it would more likely ripped apart. But if it could get up to that speed, the deceleration time would likely make it a million years before humans could reach it. And what if it were a dead planet? No life, not habitable, no resources? They would just be humans, assuming they even made it, floating around in space, a million years away from earth. So, to even a round trip to Earth would be around 2 million years. Assuming they could refuel. Assuming the Earth is still even habitable. War, disease, natural phenomena, etcetera. It would take 40 years to even be notified. And let's say they're halfway back, and they got notification that the sun was about to go crazy, maybe a super Nova, anything. What then? Next nearest planet is in a completely different constellation!!! By the time they could reach it, assuming everything else went right, and the ship hasn't become worn out and corroded from human use. would they even reconizable as human? Billions of years passing as they evolve in space. Could they even adapt to terrestrial life then? This brings up do many endless ethical questions. Even if there were advanced lifeforms in the universe, even billions of them, and they were far more advanced billions of years ago, and send messages across the universe. The likely hood of the messages even reaching is virtually impossible. But let's say it did. And let's say we replied. Billions of years later they resieved it. Would they even know it? Would they still even reconize it? Would they still have the tech to? We barely have the knowledge and tech to talk to the voyagers. The tech has been for all intent and purpose, forgotten. NASA is searching for people who still know things like Fortran. A program language from 40 years ago. Now, then there's the linguistic learning of an alien language. We have a hard time with language is here on Earth. And yet some would assume that we would be able to decipher their messages hell would we even be able to recognize it as a message? That is even if the message could even reach us. maybe someday we can figure out some kind of tech like work drives bending space and time. But all of that is just theoretical anyways. The likelihood I've ever traveling out of our solar system is very improbable. Hell we haven't even traveled back to the moon and in 50 years!!!!! NASA says it's just too hard, too complicated, too expensive. That's assuming that we actually travelled to the Moon that it wasn't a hoax. Psychological operation in the war with Russia. Maybe if we ever make it back to the Moon, maybe if we ever reach Mars, maybe then we could have a practical discussion on the possibility of ever traveling outside the solar system. but one thing I'm absolutely certain of in firmly convinced that none of us who are alive today will ever see the edge of the solar system. And I'm not so sure we'll ever see Mars.

[@Graeme_Lastname]

I've seen mars. ;)

[@chrissinclair4442]

To me there is only one great paradox. Unfortunately it is something as vain and infuriating as philosophy. If alternative intelligences exist, or aliens, do they exist if the literary ruling class doesn't allow you to know about them? This is a question going back to antiquity. The true knowledge is held by those wanting control and power.

[@erikjohnson9075]

Third option: we are the first

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Or the last?

[@rilbitz8364]

YAY

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Evolution continues. We are doomed no matter what happens. I wonder what follows. ;)

[@kylepalmer9432]

Reapers.

[@alexandermartins65]

I'm scared that Aliens are just like all of the dumb 9 year olds playing GTA V online killing all the non cheaters just trying to have fun.

[@ShamballaStyles]

The only thing I keep saying to myself on these types of subjects, if we are alone, it is terrifying. If we are not alone that is equally terrifying.

[@optionstraderbrian1696]

It's not human nature to avoid extinction.

[@don.elias.]

I doubt humans shall be a part of the Æhigher galaxy federation of galaxies.. what ever wanna call it, we wont make it past the great filtah!!!!!

[@jonathankey6444]

Unpopular theory: what if we're the only beings created, and for a reason. The Bible says that those who accept Christ will be kings over all creation with Him

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Best to leave out the fairy tales, they just cause problems we don't need.

[@flaze3]

Plot twist: Trump is a type 3 civilisation alien sent to lead humanity to its downfall.