NASA is revisiting an old theory called The “Great Filter“ theory to explain why humans might be alone in the Universe. For those who do not believe in aliens or scared of alien invasion just like Jennifer Lawrence, this news bares peace. This theory might just as well become the holy grail for those who staunchly believe aliens are just another government ruse.
However, there are many astronomers who disagree with the conundrum: “Why would ours be the only planet to have evolved into a high-tech civilization?” To these astronomers it’s a matter of math and humility. Why wouldn’t there be aliens when there are potentially trillions of life-supporting planets out there?
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What Is Great Filter Theory?
The “Great Filter” theory posits that many other civilizations existed during the history of the universe. (In layman’s terms, there is a possibility that other beings might have lived on other planets in the past.) However, they were all wiped out before they even got a chance to make contact with humans.
Robin Hanson, a George Mason University economist, originally proposed the “Great Filter” theory, back in 1996. It has since become the staple story arch for many science fictions. “The fact that our universe seems basically dead suggests that it is very very hard for advanced, explosive, lasting life to arise,” Hanson wrote.
For Hanson “explosive” means the possibility of a civilization achieving cheap spaceflight and colonizing a lot of other planets, fast. (Sounds similar to Elon Musk‘s Mars colonization endeavour! Just saying.) Hanson theorizes that there’s something that prevents intelligent life from thriving on its home planet, expanding to other planets and surviving long enough to make contact with aliens such as us. It’s just a theory.
Are Humans On The Track To “Filter” Themselves Out Of Existence?
In order to understand the Great Filter, Jiang and his co-authors turned a mirror on humanity. They postulated that whatever seems probable to kill us might also pose an existential threat to intelligent life on other planets. Following that, they drew up a short list of the biggest threats to the human species.
I can bet that at least half of all of the threats listed are entirely our own fault. Indeed, we cannot prevent an asteroid that might pretty much obliviate everything on the planet if it hit Earth. However, the other civilization-extinctioners, the JPL team thinks are likely self-inflicted. Nuclear war. Pandemic. Climate change. Artificial intelligence.
Jiang’s team chalks up these existential risks to what they describe as deeply ingrained dysfunction in intelligent beings such as humans. “Dysfunction may snowball quickly into the Great Filter,” the researchers wrote.
How Studying Great Filter Could Save Our Civilization?
Daily Beast noted that humans are on the verge of “filtering” themselves from the universe completely out of existence. Studying how aliens might have destroyed themselves could save the earthlings from possible extinction. (Not to be a spoilsport but, at this rate, we are certainly doomed!) JPL astrophysicist Jonathan Jiang and his co-authors wrote a new study that reflected the above-mentioned statement. The study appeared online on October 23 and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
“The key to humanity successfully traversing such a universal filter is… identifying those attributes in ourselves and neutralizing them in advance.”
-Robin Hanson
However, not everyone in the sciences buys the idea of the Great Filter. “It feels overly deterministic, as if the Great Filter is a physical law or a single looming force that confronts every rising technological civilization,” Wade Roush, a science lecturer and author of ‘Extraterrestrials‘ wrote. “We have no direct evidence of such a force.”
What Can Be Done To Not Get Extinct?
As mentioned earlier, these man-made “dysfunctions” can quite easily push us all to the “Great Filter”. However, the JPL team suggests that dysfunction is not inevitable. “The foundation for many of our possible filters finds its roots in immaturity,” they wrote. Daily Beast noted that we could grow up as a species, dismantle our nukes, switch to clean energy, tamp down on the zoonotic viruses that cause the worst pandemics and even develop better technology for deflecting planet-killing asteroids.
However, all of these is possible only when humanity strive to work together. The JPL team wrote, “History has shown that intraspecies competition and, more importantly, collaboration, has led us towards the highest peaks of invention. And yet, we prolong notions that seem to be the antithesis of long-term sustainable growth. Racism, genocide, inequity, sabotage… the list sprawls.”
Daily Beast wrote, “With peace, love and understanding—and some major technological breakthroughs—we just might survive our own self-destructive tendencies and defy the Great Filter. And if we can work together to get past the filter, it stands to reason other civilizations could, too. Our own survival should give us hope that someday, somehow, we’ll meet the other Great Filter survivors.”
Could There Be Aliens Out There In The Universe?
Many critics think that the entire Great Filter theory is “bunk.” It is possible that humans might not have come across aliens yet not because they’re all dead, but because “we haven’t met them yet.” The universe is vast and even if there is a possibility for the existence of aliens, they’re most certainly far away.
It’s going to take patience, and a lot of searching, to eventually find them.
“The Great Filter theory depends on the assumed observational result that nobody is out there,” Seth Shostak, an astronomer with the California-based SETI Institute, told The Daily Beast. “But that conclusion is far too premature. We’ve just begun to search.”
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