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Are Habitable Exoplanets Bad News For Humanity?

Posted by Unknown on from the type-13-planets dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The discovery of Kepler-186f last week has dusted off an interesting theory regarding the fate of humanity and the link between that fate and the possibility of life on other planets. Known as the The Great Filter, this theory attempts to answer the Fermi Paradox (why we haven't found other complex life forms anywhere in our vast galaxy) by introducing the idea of an evolutionary bottleneck which would make the emergence of a life form capable of interstellar colonization statistically rare. As scientists gear up to search for life on Kepler-186f, some people are wondering if humanity has already gone through The Great Filter and miraculously survived or if it's still on our horizon and may lead to our extinction."

6 of 608 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe not extinction... by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But the way the human race is behaving currently, getting off this dirtball in any meaningful way seems exceedingly unlikely.

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    1. Re: Maybe not extinction... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not really government per se that is the problem, it's concentration of power. Concentration of power pretty much always leads to bad outcomes, be it in the public sphere or private. So as it turns out the conservatives are right, big government is bad, but it also turns out the liberals are right, big corporations are bad. Sadly, they're both too busy arguing to figure out that they agree on the underlying principle.

    2. Re:Maybe not extinction... by Ly4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Am I saying the Drake Equation is almost certainly full of shit? Why yes I am.

      Oh, the Drake equation is just fine. It's anyone who thinks they know any of the values to plug into it that's probably full of it.

  2. Fermi paradox by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    answer: Space is really big.

    A race could have populate half the galaxy's out there and we still wouldn't know.

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    1. Re:Fermi paradox by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because they aren't possible? becasue they have populated the other half of the galaxy? becasue they don't need to grow that fast? becasue they have all been wiped out be a variety of event. Specifically wiped out faster then they can be built?

      It's like getting a thimble of water from the ocean and asking "where are all the fish?"

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      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  3. Maybe it's just us by idontgno · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe the inhabitants of those other planets aren't ravening imperialist douchebags. In that case, I'm liking our odds.

    Consider Jack Handey's observation:

    I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it.

    --Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts

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