[patentatt]

One possible solution to the great filter is that we're 'first.' It usually gets dismissed out of hand as both improbable and egotistical (or whatever the whole species level equivalent is). But it's also not impossible, and whatever species was 'first' would always think it improbable that they were first, but there has to be a first (if there are eventually more). Since there are so many unknown unknowns in discussing the great filter or the Drake equation, I'd even argue that being 'first' has as much merit as any other explanation for why we don't see other advanced life out there (even if it's statistically unlikely itself).