Quote:
Originally Posted by alnorth
I've thought about this a few times before.
I do not believe in the theory that there's a lot of civiliations out there who choose not to talk to us. I also think the theory that civilizations naturally destroy themselves is dumb. Even if you think humans are assholes, some portion of intelligent species out there would be enlightened enough not to kill themselves.
I believe there is a great filter, and that the filter is ahead of us. I think that filter is simply "unable to travel near the speed of light, and unable to warp space".
If you can't travel near or faster than the speed of light, then the mind-boggling vastness of space really puts a damper on any civilization's ability to survive the death of their star, much less colonize other planets.
If we're still alive when our star gets perilously close to cooking our planet, I imagine we'll try sending out generation ships out of desperation, and they'll probably fail. The End.
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I agree with your take. But I think this article alludes to the same thing with the "Great Filter". Doesn't mean we are wiped out, but our intellectual capacity could simply peak and the concepts needed to rise farther are beyond us. Or it might actually just be physically impossible, no matter how smart we are or how much we learn.