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| Image Source: Week in Weird, Chris Silva |
Topics: Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, Entropy, Space Exploration, SETI
There seems to be a strong inclination for Eschatology, or literally the study of "end things." A great deal of ink is devoted to it in books, blogs and Internet memes.
The Apostle Paul - the sub after Judas - et al believed they would see the end of things in their own lifetimes. The Jehovah's Witnesses' founder Charles Taze Russell devoted a great deal of thought to the subject. Millerites - derived from former Baptist preacher William Miller set a date for the end-of-the-age as October 22, 1844. This became known as the "Great Disappointment." Even Jesus hedged his bets in ancient tradition (seems to have been more a matter of business than romance), and there's an ever-growing list of predictions that (spoiler alert) weren't quite accurate.
Filters do a tremendous work, especially in fermentation. For anyone with inkjet printers, Subtractive Color Mixing employs the primary colors cyan, magenta and yellow. You can even do a lab on it.
The Great Filter is a post I saw on Facebook from io9 that looks at the Fermi Paradox and tries to answer it with the likely possibility that evolved intelligence is its own Entropy as I've stated in previous posts. We may well be past that, and capable of becoming a space faring species with a lot of real estate to explore.
It's an admittedly positive spin. In light of the current xenophobia and the delicate balance of income inequality, strained resources; domestic and international terrorism, it is my hope we all are past the filter and get to an advanced level of maturity...quickly.
io9:
The Great Filter theory suggests humans have already conquered the threat of extinction
George Dvorsky
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