r/GreatFilter reached 1000 subscribers!

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Screenshot of r/GreatFilter top posts on the day we reached 1000 subscribers.

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r/GreatFilter reached 1000 subscribers! It took a little less than 2 years to build this subreddit to that size starting from zero. It was a lot harder and more time-consuming than I was expecting, but I have no doubt it was worth it.

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When I founded this subreddit on 2017-Jan-11, I did it because Robin Hanson's concept of the Great Filter needed a stronger voice. It's an idea a divided world can rally around to solve all manner of problems that authentically threaten Mankind's survival, and probably the survival of most life on Earth too. Without the Great Filter, all ills, even the biggest ones, could seem disconnected, unrelated, and easily dismissed as "it can't happen to me".

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My goal, which I have made the mission of r/GreatFilter, is to raise awareness of the value and fragility of life, so potential threats to its continued prosperity will be taken seriously. I am personally amazed we - our technological civilization - has the ability to know about a looming cosmic threat like the Great Filter, without knowing even the most basic facts about what exactly that threat is. It almost seems like knowing the unknowable future somehow.

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Even more amazing is Robin Hanson was able to formulate the Great Filter concept as an economist, who is basically a layperson as far as exotic cutting-edge cosmology is concerned. He is essentially sharing a conversation as an equal peer with many of Mankind's finest and most renowned geniuses, like Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and Stephen Hawking. Not only is our technological civilization magnificently extraordinary, but many of its most ordinary individuals are also equally awe-inspiring. If anyone in our universe can beat the merciless threat of the Great Filter, it is us - all of us.

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In other words, our messiah could be you, simply by sharing your thoughtful musings here in r/GreatFilter, on this excellent openly-accessible platform Reddit has provided for us. The more people know about the Great Filter, the more our technological civilization will realize how important it is to reason with the wisdom of truth, instead of selfish desires. Only then can we save ourselves, and others, from the inevitable extinction all life in the universe eventually faces. A technological civilization is the only force that has the power to save life from extinction, and cultivate it throughout a dead universe.

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Everything we know about the universe indicates the Great Filter is real. However, the Great Filter is still only a hypothesis, which means science has not yet conclusively proven its existence. While many things in science are rapidly made obsolete, I think the concept of the Great Filter is worthy of becoming a lasting cultural token of common sense wisdom someday, regardless of its eventual scientific validation or invalidation. I intend to continue presenting the Great Filter as the boogie man that, real or not, should scare Mankind into good behavior.

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Remember, even if the Great Filter does not exist, it doesn't matter. Even if we have passed the Great Filter, it does not matter. Nothing will ever exempt us from extinction. One thing is certain: The universe is violent, and it will never stop trying to kill us.