this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
145 points (95.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26980 readers
1266 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The Great Filter is the idea that, in the development of life from the earliest stages of abiogenesis to reaching the highest levels of development on the Kardashev scale, there is a barrier to development that makes detectable extraterrestrial life exceedingly rare. The Great Filter is one possible resolution of the Fermi paradox.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

Personally I think it's photosynthesis. Life itself developed and spread but photosynthesis started an inevitable chain of ever-greater and more-efficient life. I think a random chain of mutations that turns carbon-based proto-life into something that can harvest light energy is wildly unlikely, even after the wildly unlikely event of life beginning in the first place.

I have no data to back that up, just a guess.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Why would they eliminate the competition if it was way behind in technology? Do we eliminate uncontacted tribes because they might be "competition"?

If aliens exist they probably have rules against interfering with primitive species. We are more like a band of chimps than an uncontacted tribe.

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 2 points 5 months ago

We don’t eliminate uncontacted groups any more because we’ve contacted everyone we want stuff from, and it didn’t work out well for them. Lower technology groups in the 1800’s submitted or were killed off. In a finite universe, any competition could one day try to take you out, so you take them out.

I don’t believe anyone can fathom another alien race, much less assign them ethical rules about interfering with other species. And apes are slowly being driven out of their habitat as we continue to expand.

Who said that they eliminate competition that's way behind technologically? They haven't eliminated us, so apparently they don't. But it seems plausible that they eliminate civilizations that are on the verge of becoming dangerous - still a great filter, but probably a bit further in the future.