Re:Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of Venus – an indica...
by GuB-42 on Monday September 14, 2020 @05:38PM
(#24475456)
What it considered is not the current state of the human race. The real question is more like "why isn't the entire galaxy colonized by a super advanced civilization?".
A galactic civilization is expected to leave traces. The most advanced civilizations are expected to use a huge amount of energy (information is energy too). Even if we don't find spaceships, we could see otherwise unexplained high/low entropy regions. In fact, there is a theory that says that life is the most powerful entropy generator, and that Earth has a distinct IR glow because of it.
Currently, it doesn't seem there is anything preventing us from colonizing interstellar space in the far future. Lots of unanswered questions but the laws of physics don't exclude it.
The Great Filter theory is that because we don't see any sign of a galactic civilization, there is something in the way. It can be behind us (ex: the appearance of life) or ahead of us (ex: civilizations tend to get wiped off before they can colonize other star systems).
And even if the great filter is simply that even the most advanced civilizations can stay undetected (so no real filter), finding evidence that the great filter is less likely to be behind us make it more likely to be ahead of us (or inexistant).
A galactic civilization is expected to leave traces. The most advanced civilizations are expected to use a huge amount of energy (information is energy too). Even if we don't find spaceships, we could see otherwise unexplained high/low entropy regions. In fact, there is a theory that says that life is the most powerful entropy generator, and that Earth has a distinct IR glow because of it.
Currently, it doesn't seem there is anything preventing us from colonizing interstellar space in the far future. Lots of unanswered questions but the laws of physics don't exclude it.
The Great Filter theory is that because we don't see any sign of a galactic civilization, there is something in the way. It can be behind us (ex: the appearance of life) or ahead of us (ex: civilizations tend to get wiped off before they can colonize other star systems).
And even if the great filter is simply that even the most advanced civilizations can stay undetected (so no real filter), finding evidence that the great filter is less likely to be behind us make it more likely to be ahead of us (or inexistant).