Word that water may
well flow on Mars (periodically) was met with great excitement by
many people. Water makes it easier to land and live there, as well as
dramatically increasing the potential for life on Mars.
However, a few people
were dismayed by the hugely significant discovery, which seems a
little odd. Until you learn about the Fermi Paradox and the Great
Filter [before yesterday, I knew of the former but not the latter].
Concisely, the Fermi
Paradox wonders why we haven’t encountered any other aliens (yes,
space is enormous, but species could have been developing for
billions of years more than us, so where are they?). The Great Filter
is a reference to a theoretical barrier that is very difficult to
surpass, and prevents species reaching a certain technological height
(hence why we haven’t encountered any).
A very interesting and
lengthier explanation is available here [some fruity language so
perhaps NSFW]: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
The issue with the
Great Filter, as well as potentially not existing, is that nobody
knows where it is. It might be an extremely early evolutionary
barrier, at the unicellular level, or it could be in our distant (or
immediate) future.
The human race is
inherently unstable, to some degree. It might be that high
intelligence (which, on an individual level, has high co-morbidity
with many psychological conditions) in a species naturally coincides
with instability. It’s not hard to think of the numerous wars we’ve
made on ourselves. If we keep doing that, the chances of nukes or
biological agents (or weapons yet undeveloped) getting used on a
global level will shorten (perhaps to a terminal extent).
We’re also very near
the Singularity, a moment when artificial intelligence will exceed
that of ourselves. This is significant because we could create a
machine, which then designs a more intelligent machine, and so on. As
this moment approaches, we’re also developing ever more effective
robotic forms of death, which has led scientists to call for laws
governing autonomous killing machines.
Inventing autonomous
killer robots with superior intelligence to our own would be a very
human way to commit species-wide suicide.
Drifting back to Mars
and the Martians: if there is life on Mars, then that removes the
earliest instances of the Great Filter, and makes it a bit more
likely the Great Filter (which may well be an apocalypse of some
variety) lies in our future, rather than our past.
Cheery thought. And all
because some salty deposits were found several million miles away.
Thaddeus
