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by TeMPOraL 2001 days ago
For context, the examples you mentioned are cases of the great filter lying ahead of us. The more optimistic hope is that the great filter is behind us - things like abiogenesis or multicellular life being extremely unlikely to happen. "Great filter" is just the name for "a barrier that stops life from becoming a spacefaring civilization".

This explanation is also the reason why finding basic life (say, bacteria) in the Solar System would be a cause for worry - if life evolved independently twice in the same star system, it would imply abiogenesis isn't that unlikely - thus strongly suggesting the great filter is still ahead of us.
1 comments
garbagetime 2001 days ago
Could the great filter be something like developing language? That's something that seems quite rare (only one species on Earth has it). If so, then discovering bacteria in the Solar System wouldn't be such a cause for worry.
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pratyushc 2001 days ago
> Could the great filter be something like developing language?

Perhaps it's a combination of factors? Dolphins are social animals that appear to be capable of complex communications among themselves, but don't have hands to manipulate their environment the way we can.

Apes have hands, but don't have complex language.

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azernik 2001 days ago
Another interesting one I've heard is getting into space, period. It's possible that there are other technological civilizations out there, but all stuck under a few hundred km of ice or on a 2-earth-mass monster where it's impractical to reach orbit.

Earth may only be special in being in a sweet spot between Mars (too small to hold an atmosphere or protect from cosmic radiation, hence no life) and Gliese 832c (with its low-orbit velocity of something like 15km/s, hence much less practical to put stuff in space).

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pratyushc 2000 days ago
> protect from cosmic radiation

That raises another issue of the planet having a magnetic core...

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azernik 2000 days ago
You can also get shielding with a thick enough atmosphere, or being under a solid ice/rock crust. But both of those also make it much harder to reach space.
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InDemoVeritas 2001 days ago
Speak for yourself.
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