Yep. That’s the Great Filter concept. Certain stages on the evolutionary path may lead to extinction, and only the smartest species are able to pass the filter unharmed. In our case, the discovery of fossil fuels and nuclear weapons may be those kinds of stages.
Imagine what happens if we pass this filter and become an intergalactic species. Maybe one day we’ll start tinkering with technology capable of destroying a star, galaxy or the entire universe. If we are smart enough to squeeze energy out of the very fabric of space, we might also be dumb enough to cause the entire universe to collapse or something like that.
It’s a proposed solution to the fermi paradox. The idea is that we don’t see aliens out there in the stars, because they all nuked themselves to oblivion at some stage. Maybe they never reached the stars, before they destroyed their home planet. Maybe they blew up their own star and didn’t reach another one in time. Maybe their entire galaxy got sucked into a home-made black hole.
“Will detonating this nuclear bomb set the atmosphere on fire?”
“Meh, probably not.”
That’s the Great Filter concept. Certain stages on the evolutionary path may lead to extinction, and only the smartest species are able to pass
What if it is the accumulation of filters that no one can pass?
- we evolved as intelligent and successful and passed many tests of natural selection, so far
- we’ve survived nuclear weapons, so far
- we’ve survived plague/biological warfare, so far
- were still approaching climate catastrophe, so far
- we’ve survived evolution + nuclear war + plague/biological + early climate change, so far
People get wrapped up in speculation about which stage may be the great filter, but it’s not as if they end. They just keep adding up. We need to keep passing all the filters we already pass plus all the filters yet to come
