May 18th, 2019 - /r/GreatFilter: The most urgent question Mankind has ever faced

####/r/GreatFilter 1,606 readers for 2 Years!

The Great Filter is the most urgent question Mankind has ever faced. It's the solution to the Fermi Paradox. The Great Filter is Robin Hanson's hypothesis there are no other technological civilizations (not even on Earth) because they die before they colonize a galaxy. The mission of r/GreatFilter is to raise awareness of the value and fragility of life, and thus the importance of peaceful colonization of space beyond Earth, one rock at a time. Is our destiny literally in our stars?

We are a small subreddit, having reached 1000 subscribers only recently:

• [r/GreatFilter reached 1000 subscribers! : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/a68lql/rgreatfilter_reached_1000_subscribers/)

But despite our small size, we have succeeded in getting the attention of millions of Kurzgesagt viewers when they did a video about an original idea first published in r/GreatFilter:

• [Remember badon's Gravity Trap? Kurzgesagt writers must read r/GreatFilter, because they made a video about it: End of Space – Creating a Prison for Humanity : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/a0kcn2/remember_badons_gravity_trap_kurzgesagt_writers/)

The concept of the Great Filter needs to become a topic of daily conversation, because Mankind is facing enormous changes in our present and our near future, and the only precedent we know of for similar changes involve mass extinctions of nearly every species. Obviously, that's bad and does not bode well for our survival chances. We don't want to become extinct if we can avoid it, but one thing we know so far is no matter how dominant, and no mater how numerous, no species is invulnerable to extinction. In short, we are all definitely going to die if we don't get our act together as a united civilization and figure out what to do to stop it.

Stopping our own extinction is not going to be easy because no one knows for sure what the Great Filter is. Even the most confident appraisals immediately incite controversy:

• [This is how we know with high confidence intelligence and technological civilizations are extremely rare in the universe : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/a53guv/this_is_how_we_know_with_high_confidence/)

Absent scientific certainty, we look to sci-fi for inspiration and perhaps even guidance, with the top post of all time being a sci-fi short story:

• [[Sci-Fi] The Great Filters : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9v5qx0/scifi_the_great_filters/)

The realm of the Great Filter is unexplored and full of mystery, so there is much to discover if we only look and ponder what we see. Maybe YOU will play an important role in the discussions that will someday save us all.

Written by Guest writer u/badon_, Edited by u/OwnTheKnight Moderator.