r/GreatFilter

755 archived posts · Sep 2017 – Sep 2026

r/GreatFilter: The most urgent question Mankind has ever faced

r/GreatFilter

The Great Filter is the most urgent question Mankind has ever faced. It's the solution to the Fermi Paradox - 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?

Created Jan 11, 2017

5.6KMembers (last snapshot)

755Archived posts

About this subreddit

Rules

Put [Sci-Fi] at the beginning of sci-fi post titles.

Handy links about this subreddit

You can also chat about surviving the Great Filter in Freenode ##prepping on the Freenode IRC network. Be sure to mention you joined from Reddit.

r/GreatFilter in the media

Since its founding on 2017-Jan-11, 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. It is working:

2018-11-04: [The Great Filter—the most important question in history : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9uakb7/the_great_filterthe_most_important_question_in/)
2018-11-26: [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/)
2019-03-08: [Are We Alone? Ch. 5: The Great Filter Theory | Genius by Stephen Hawking | PBS LearningMedia : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/ayzlpl/are_we_alone_ch_5_the_great_filter_theory_genius/)
2019-05-07: [r/GreatFilter is about the scientific hypothesis collapse may be nearly guaranteed for every technological civilization in the entire universe : r/collapse](https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/blo3eg/rgreatfilter_is_about_the_scientific_hypothesis/)
2019-05-20: [r/GreatFilter is succeeding : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/br50uc/rgreatfilter_is_succeeding/)

Introductions to the Great Filter

The Great Filter—the most important question in history (short)
The Fermi Paradox - Wait But Why (long)
[1806.02404] Dissolving the Fermi Paradox - arXiv.org (technical)
Where Are They? Why I hope the search for extraterrestrial life finds nothing 2008
Great Filter, 20 Years On 2018
The Great Filter - Are We Almost Past It? 1998

Video introductions to the Great Filter

Even if the Great Filter theory is wrong, the end result is still the same:

[Bullets and butterflies : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/920vh2/bullets_and_butterflies/)

What do we do after the Great Filter?:

[The Helenus Prophecy: Will mankind warn other intelligent civilizations about the Great Filter? : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9gj7vp/the_helenus_prophecy_will_mankind_warn_other/)

Some entertainment

[[Sci-Fi] Eldon Toldefreed : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/946ulr/scifi_eldon_toldefreed/)
[[Sci-Fi] The Great Filters : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9v5qx0/scifi_the_great_filters/)
[[Sci-Fi] The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9w2dnf/scifi_the_fermi_paradox_is_our_business_model/)
[reddit.com: search results - [sci-fi] : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/search?q=%5Bsci-fi%5D&restrict_sr=1&include_over_18=1&sort=new)
[Redditors trying to figure out the Great Filter : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/bhu7je/redditors_trying_to_figure_out_the_great_filter/)
[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Monkey - Zordrak solves the Fermi "Paradox" : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9xtbj9/saturday_morning_breakfast_cereal_monkey_zordrak/)

Possible Great Filters

Environmental problems like climate change or global warming could be only the tip of the iceberg for a much larger fundamental physics problem:

[What if sustainability is an impossible equilibrium? : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/95m9p8/what_if_sustainability_is_an_impossible/)

What about nuclear weapons?

[Ruling out nuclear war as a likely Great Filter; we've blown up 520 of them with only minor global effects, damage is localised and modern nukes are fairly clean. : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/92zskn/ruling_out_nuclear_war_as_a_likely_great_filter/)

Consequences of violence applied to the vacuum of space:

[The Gravity Trap is the Great Filter : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/98qhnh/the_gravity_trap_is_the_great_filter/)

Even on Earth, intelligence only evolved one time:

[No other animal has matched humans - Is encephalization the great filter? | Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9pro4p/no_other_animal_has_matched_humans_is/)
[Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans? : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/9qnstl/was_there_a_civilization_on_earth_before_humans/)

Multicellularity?:

[Development of multicellular life probably not the great filter (nature article) : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/atjfn8/development_of_multicellular_life_probably_not/)

Isolated by galactic motion:

[Earth might remain unvisited in the midst of an inhabited galaxy - [1902.04450] The Fermi Paradox and the Aurora Effect: Exo-civilization Settlement, Expansion and Steady States : r/GreatFilter](https://www.reddit.com/r/GreatFilter/comments/at4qc8/earth_might_remain_unvisited_in_the_midst_of_an/)

The history of r/GreatFilter

2017-01-10: 1 member.
2017-10-04: 50 members.
2018-01-24: 100 members.
2018-07-15: 200 members.
2018-08-09: 300 members.
2018-08-19: 400 members.
2018-10-07: 500 members.
2018-10-31: 600 members.
2018-11-09: 700 members.
2018-12-08: 800 members.
2018-12-10: 900 members.
2018-12-12: 1000 members.
2019-02-17: 1500 members.
2019-04-13: Tiny Subreddit of the Day *.
2019-05-10: [Added to r/collapse sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/bmvllp/meta_two_changes_to_the_sidebar_in_rcollapse/).
2019-05-18: Subreddit of the Day *.
2019-05-18: 2000 members.
2019-07-08: 2500 members.
2019-08-31: 3000 members.

Great Filter multireddit

See also the reddit Great Filter multireddit. It has all of reddit's Great Filter-related posts in one place. Post an announcement about your related subreddit, and request inclusion in the reddit Great Filter multireddit.

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