From: Robin Hanson (hanson@dosh.hum.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 09 1996 - 16:13:07 MDT
I realized I didn't really explain my reasoning on this topic,
and was inspired to write the following short paper this morning on
the topic. Here is the title, abstract, and URL. Comments most welcome.
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The Great Filter -- by Robin Hanson
Humanity seems to have a bright future, a non-trivial chance of
expanding to fill the universe with lasting life. But the fact that
space around us seems dead now tells us that any given peice of dead
matter faces an astronomically low chance of begating such a future.
There thus exists a great filter between death and expanding lasting
life, and humanity now faces the ominous question: how far along this
filter are we? Study of the origins of life offers important relevant
evidence; the easier it was for life to evolve to our stage, the
bleaker our future chances must be.
Full paper at: http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/greatfilter.html
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