Researchers associated with the US space agency NASA conducted a study in which they applied the scientific theory of the Great Candidate.
The Great Candidate is a hypothetical explanation for why we’ve never come into contact with other advanced life in space.
Read more about The great candidate
The theory is based on the fact that over the course of time (13.8 billion years) there have been many civilizations in space, but these civilizations doomed themselves before they mastered the art of interplanetary communication and travel.
In short, this is a kind of self-removing filter that stops complex development after a certain point in evolution.
It’s a research group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California that has now applied great filter theory in the study.Avoiding the Great Filter: Extraterrestrial Life and Humankind’s Future in the Universe»(The Great Candidate: Extraterrestrial Life and the Future of Humanity in the Universe).
Also read: The professor with a gloomy message: – If there was life on Venus, we might be lost
An existential disaster
The study’s researchers suggest that humanity may be on the way to being filtered by the Great Filter, write Sky News.
The report reads: “We hypothesize (claim/assert without sufficient evidence, note) that an existential catastrophe is in the making, acting as a great candidate, while our society makes extraordinary progress toward space exploration.”
“The Great Filter is a phenomenon that wipes out civilizations before they can communicate with each other, which may explain the cosmic silence,” the researchers wrote.
It is believed that there are billions of planets in space that are in the habitable zone of the solar system, like our own.
The building blocks of life have already been discovered in space, such as amino acids on meteorites and water on Mars. Many astrophysicists and astronomers believe this should indicate that there are high chances of life somewhere other than Earth.
Nuclear weapons, climate and artificial intelligence
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, points to potential existential disasters caused by, for example, nuclear weapons, pandemics, climate change or artificial intelligence.
The report reads: “The Great Candidate has the potential to destroy life as we know it, especially since our rate of progression (the statistical relationship between two measurable quantities) correlates directly with the severity of our demise.”
“History has shown us that competition and especially cooperation between species has led us to the highest levels of innovation. Yet we maintain a perception that seems to be the antithesis of long-term, sustainable growth: racism, genocide, inequality, and subversion.”
However, the study confirms that there is still hope for humanity, and that we can avoid filtration if we take the necessary steps.
“The key to humanity’s success in crossing such a universal filter is to pre-identify and neutralize our destructive traits,” the researchers wrote. Huffington Post.
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The Grand Candidate: Nine Steps in Development
Economics professor Robin Hanson launched the Great Filter Theory in 1998. In short, Hanson has attempted to explain this great silence from space by the fact that advanced civilizations were wiped out before they perfected the art of interplanetary communication and travel.
Today’s technology makes it impossible for us to detect, for example, radio signals that decrease in strength over longer distances, and we’re still far from the idea of being able to move at the speed of light.
in the article “The Great Liquidation – Are We Close to Overcoming It?(The great candidate, are we almost past it?) Professor Hanson identifies nine stages in evolution, with the final stage being explosive colonization, that is, colonization outside our planet.
- The first step in this evolutionary ladder is the correct solar system and organic matter.
- Then follows the step with reproducing particles.
- Simple unicellular life forms.
- complex unicellular life forms.
- Sexual reproduction.
- Multicellular life forms.
- Intelligent animals that use tools.
- where are we now.
- Explosive colonization (space).
Incomplete list?
Hanson stresses that the list is not necessarily complete.
“The great silence indicates that one or more of these steps is very unlikely. There is a wonderful filter along the path between simple dead things and explosive life. The vast majority of things identified on this path do not make it to the finish line. In fact, none Among the billions of trillions of stars in the universe’s past have succeeded in traversing this entire path. The fact that our entire universe appears to be completely dead indicates that it is very, very difficult for advanced, explosive, and enduring life to emerge,” Hanson wrote.
“No alien civilization has massively colonized our solar system or nearby systems. So of all the billions and trillions of stars in the universe’s past, none have reached the level of technology and growth that we may soon reach. This point indicates that the Great Candidate stands among matter Ordinary dead, evolving, explosive, enduring life. The big question is: How far are we from that filter?” Hanson writes.
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