Once a professor of economics from the United States James Miller wrote a phrase in the Aftonbladet newspaper that shook the minds of people: "But it may be that all possible civilizations are usually obliged to disappear."
According to the professor, the Universe contains a huge number of celestial bodies, in particular, planets, but we do not observe any life in any way. And then it is possible that there is something that prevents her from emerging precisely in an intelligent form in which she can demonstrate herself.
There is a theory of the “Big Filter”, which can explain this phenomenon to some extent.
The Big Filter concept was born in the second half of the 1990s. The theory first appeared in an article by US economist Robin Hanson. It is based on the existence of a certain obstacle, the overcoming of which destroys any form of life. This obstacle seems to stop the emerging highest, developed civilization, in order to avoid colonization of the entire Universe.
James says: “Genius lies in simplicity. Suppose that life may not be formed at all on other celestial bodies, and if it is born, it does not develop to a reasonable stage. Or vice versa: many intelligent civilizations have already existed. They had incredible technical capabilities, but some circumstances did not allow them to step further in development."
It is worth imagining that if at present there really were civilizations similar to ours, the probability of collision with them would be hundreds of times greater. That is why there is one of the few logical conclusions that intelligent civilizations simply disappeared as a result of an unknown reason. If you think about it, you can be horrified by the following conclusion: the discovery of any facts proving that extinct extraterrestrial civilizations existed means the likely death of ours.
Only one thing is not clear here: what is this “barrier” that does not allow civilizations to exist further? Why did they disappear? Does this threaten us, in reality? Is it worth taking into account the assumption that our civilization was able to survive, overcoming this mysterious obstacle?
By the way, there is an assumption that the development of the atomic bomb may be the very limit of the existence of civilization. Bomb designers and scientists at Los Alamos have said that such creations can destroy the atmosphere that sustains our lives. Although there were no explosions, the risk of such an experiment endangers our civilization. Then could something similar happen to others?
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GAVRILOVA DIANA