Great Filter

The Midnight Article "What is the Fate of Humanity? or Alone in the Universe?" was written by u/Metalsa and posted to r/MidnightPaper.

It was the first article featured in the first edition of what is known as a "Moonlight Paper," a special edition of a Midnight Paper that is delivered at midnight on a night with a full moon.

The text of the Article was as follows:

**WHAT IS THE FATE OF HUMANITY? or ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?**

As this is a special edition of The Midnight Paper, The Moonlight Paper, we have decided to look up from our screens and to admire the moon. In doing so we have come up with the idea for this article. Such great inspiration can come from simply looking up.

I’m sure many of our readers have, at some point in their lives, looked up at the night sky and seeing all those stars, so far away, wandered if they are alone in the universe. Is life so rare that it can only be found on Earth? Are humans the only “intelligent” species out there? With how vast and old the universe is they couldn’t possibly be the only ones, right? Scientists have found as many as six billion Earth-like planets in this galaxy alone. Meaning that there are about six billion planets fairly close to Earth, in the grand scheme of things at least, that could sustain life. Which only begs the question, where is everyone?

Well, dear readers, allow us to answer your question with another question. Have you ever heard of the Fermi Paradox? No? Well you just read about it, or at least an overly simplified version of it, in the paragraph above. That is the paradox. With all the evidence pointing at there being more life besides that which is found on Earth, why haven’t people encountered these other life-forms?

We will introduce you to another aspect of the paradox, great filters. Great filters, in this context, can be viewed as barriers, hurdles that civilizations have to jump over, metaphorically speaking, in order for it to survive. Perhaps these filters are extremely hard to overcome which is why Earth seems to be the only planet currently sustaining life, and perhaps all other civilizations have been unable to overcome these obstacles. But what about human civilizations, dear readers? What about you?

There are two possibilities concerning this theory.

1. Humanity has overcome all filters it’s encountered and therefore these great filters are behind them, and maybe the only civilization to do so, so far.
2. Humanity has yet to overcome the great filters that lay ahead and the reason they haven’t heard from other civilizations is because most have been bested by these filters.

The far less terrifying option for humans is the first one. All the great filters are in humanity’s past and Earth was simply lucky enough to get to this point, possibly the first civilization to do so. It could be the case that complex life is way harder to achieve than previously thought. Perhaps for life to begin, the first protein or first DNA molecule to form is almost impossible to happen randomly, and humans were just extremely lucky. Or perhaps, the galaxy itself has only recently become inhabitable, making Earth the first planet able to sustain life. This would mean that humans truly are alone, and while most will point out that that also means humans are unique, which is “pretty neat”, as our human intern Laura described it, we think it would be more than terrifying to be the only life form around, fully responsible for making sure that life doesn’t die out in the universe.

But that brings us to our second option. Humanity will have to face the greatest filter yet in the future, and it is uncertain whether or not they will make it. With this option it is believed that many civilizations have come before and that most were destroyed when faced with the great filter. Many have speculated about what this filter could be. Some seem to think that humanity’s greatest challenge will be surviving all out nuclear war, where the entire planet becomes radioactive due to humans’ own actions. Others think that the worst is yet to come when it comes to climate change, because many climate scientists believe that the damage done to Earth due to this man-made phenomenon is not reversible and the way things are going it is only getting worse. With the planet itself getting warmer and warmer many places on Earth will become completely uninhabitable and humans living in that area will be forced to evacuate and leave everything behind, turning them into climate refugees. And I think we’ve already seen how human refugees are treated by other humans. Unlike the other scenario, in this case the death of humanity will be a slow one in which nations die one by one refusing to help one another and disregarding the problem altogether, but just like the previous case taking all other life-forms on Earth down with them.

And while both of those sound very plausible, too plausible for comfort, you, reading this have nothing to worry about. You see, dear readers, we’ve left out a third scenario, one you shouldn’t concern yourself about. Why? Well, because you won’t be able to experience it, as it will occur sometime in the future, a future in which you are already dead (you didn’t think you’d live forever, did you?). And why would you ever bother with something that doesn’t directly affect you, right?

The real way humanity will perish is by being killed. Not by self-destructing as we all expected, but by the hands of another civilization, an older, stronger, ancient civilization. A civilization that currently, as of writing this article, is in complete control of the Milky Way and is on its way to colonize Andromeda as well. Far in the future, when humanity will become too advanced for their own good, this advanced and vastly superior civilization will destroy humanity, but not before completely depleting it of all of its resources, if they find anything worth-while on Earth (we highly doubt it).

And thus, humanity shall end. But again, we urge you not to stress about it, as you will not be there to see it. If you decide to have off springs who will then produce more and more people that will have to live through the agony of humanity’s downfall, well that is entirely on you and is, of course, your own fault.

But worry not, dear reader, as we here at The Midnight Paper, diligent as ever, will be there to report on humanity’s demise and delight in the schadenfreude of the event.

And until next time, don’t forget to look up the stars from time to time. And most importantly don’t forget to smile as well. You never know who is looking back at you.

Description:

This Midnight Article discusses the possibility of the existence of life on other planets in the vast reaches of the universe. It explains two scientific concepts that are mainstays in the discussion of life outside of our planet, the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter.

The Fermi Paradox, simply put, is a mathematical calculation that shows the bizarre situation that we are witnessing in the universe. If one were to calculate all the stars in the universe with planets in their respective Habitable Zones (or Goldilocks Zones), where they are not too close to their sun or too far away and must therefore be fit for life...why is there no blatant evidence of life on other planets?

The second scientific concept the Article discusses is known as The Great Filter. This is a theory that may explain the Fermi Paradox. If we have not found evidence of life on other planets, and no extraterrestrial life has made its way to our galaxy, then there must be something preventing this...there must be something that destroys civilizations before they are able to travel outside of their solar systems. If something like this does exist, it would be an Oddity of vast power, perhaps one of the most powerful Oddities in existence.

Many Great Filters have been proposed: civilization-ending climate change, devastating nuclear wars, gargantuan asteroid impacts, extinction-level plagues...

Perhaps the most horrifying possibility behind The Great Filter, however, is the existence of some kind of extraterrestrial civilization with war-like of genocidal tendencies. If this civilization exists, they could be responsible for wiping out or subjugating any intergalactic civilization they come across.

Indeed, it is this possibility that the Article focuses in its conclusion. It posits that such an ancient and powerful civilization does exist, and is currently in control of the Milky Way and on its way to controlling the Andromeda Galaxy.

If humanity becomes too advanced for its "own good," this civilization will wipe us out and deplete our resources.