Why UFOs Are So Hard to Detect...The Great Filter Theory - Robin Hanson
- Andy McIlvain
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
I always find it interesting how scientists dance around God, looking to explain the unexplainable.
This interview from Curt Jaimungal with Robin Hanson nevertheless offers some great ideas to consider as we seek to solve the UAP riddle.
Is Earth Being Monitored By Aliens? | Robin Hanson
Video from Curt Jaimungal
Why UFOs Are So Hard to Detect...The Great Filter Theory - Robin Hanson
"Is Earth being monitored by an advanced civilization one million years ahead of us? And does this alien civilization actually share an ancient past with humanity? Economist Robin Hanson explores a provocative theory suggesting that highly evolved extraterrestrials may be subtly observing us—either as caretakers or as part of a long-running experiment. From there, the conversation delves into the intricacies of academic funding and the peer review process.
Links Mentioned:
Robin’s blog: https://www.overcomingbias.com/
Robin’s profile: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/rhanson
Robin’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Age-Em-Work-Ro...
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Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:36 - The Great Filter 05:38 - Where Are The Aliens? 09:13 - UFOs 16:50 - Panspermia 23:05 - Alien Hierarchies 27:30 - Alien Culture & Motivations 33:18 - Probability of Aliens 39:18 - Truth 49:41 - Fall of Academia 01:11:27 - Peer Review 01:20:22 - Ranking Ideas 01:23:09 - The System is “Broken” FROM THE VIDEO INTRODUCTION
The Great Filter: a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox
"There are many major hurdles to becoming an interplanetary species, but one might be tougher than the rest.
In 1950, the physicist and Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi famously asked his colleagues: “Where are they?” Fermi had been reflecting upon the vastness of the cosmos, and “they” in his question referred to extraterrestrials. With an almost unfathomable number of stars and planets in the universe, it seemed obvious that intelligent civilizations capable of developing radio astronomy and interstellar travel should speckle the distant stars. Yet, in Fermi’s day, no evidence of such civilizations existed — something that still holds true today.
The Fermi Paradox is the term used to describe the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life in the face of a universe that should be, by the numbers, bursting with it. But we see no signs of alien technology, and our radio telescopes don’t pick up voices from other worlds.
Many hypotheses have been proposed to resolve the Fermi Paradox, but all of these remain unproven. And in the 1990s, another possible explanation for our apparent aloneness in the universe was formulated by Robin Hanson — a postulate that has become known as the Great Filter.
The hurdles to interplanetary life
Simply stated, the Great Filter says that intelligent interstellar lifeforms must first take many critical steps, and at least one of these steps must be highly improbable. Indeed, the premise of the Great Filter is that there’s at least one hurdle that is so high virtually no species can clear it and move on to the next. But while the term the Great Filter suggests the conscious action of some sort of exogenous entity, in reality, the hypothesis is more a way of thinking about the relative likelihood of certain events happening — or not happening — in their own natural course.
So, what basic hurdles must be cleared in order to become a truly advanced, spacefaring civilization? Hanson suggested a few, paraphrased below:
A planet capable of harboring life must form in a star’s habitable zone...' from the article:
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