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0 pointseloff5y ago0 comments

I appreciate your optimism. I tend to be optimistic about the future myself. But there is no law of the universe that everything will work out ok. Only if we make the right decisions as a species and we don't get unlucky.

I'm quite apprehensive that the great filter lies ahead - that technology accelerates too rapidly compared to our wisdom and we end up nearly destroying ourselves. We're getting the ability to program life itself and to likely to democratize the ability to harness the forces inside the atom. Neither of which we're ready for as a species.

0 comments

grey-area5y ago

I believe the OP said 0K, not OK.

There may not be a universal law which says everything will be OK, but there is one which says everything will be 0K in the end.

eloffOP5y ago

Ah, I get it now. It's hard to see the difference!

ineedasername5y ago

nearly 0k

renewiltord5y ago

Not zero, just zero potential.

woko5y ago

I think it was a joke about zero Kelvin.

tartoran5y ago

I thought of it as being 0k as in empty of information. Kelvin is K but I like this interpretation more.

brodie5y ago

Same thing, really.

fouc5y ago

Zero entropy

sn415y ago

Maximum entropy, I think?

I've wondered about this. How can something which is having a cold death (zero kelvin) also have maximum entropy? But I am not at all an expert.

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fouc5y ago

Oops. Brain fart :) Maximum entropy indeed

combatentropy5y ago

I thought that entropy was increasing

amelius5y ago

> I appreciate your optimism. I tend to be optimistic about the future myself. But there is no law of the universe that everything will work out ok.

Isn't there some QM law that says that with infinitesimal probability anything can materialize at any point in space? Meaning that after everything has collapsed, you can (will!) still re-materialize somewhere in space. An infinite number of times!

mordechai90005y ago

I kind of wonder, in a half-assed amateurish way, if the underlying reality of our universe isn't just an extremely rare random fluctuation in a fluid-like medium at thermodynamic equilibrium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

witherk5y ago

You can definitely find cosmologist who believe this kind of thing, though it's rarely formalized.

hnhnhnhnhn5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

kiba5y ago

What does it mean to not pass the great filter? Humanity or their successor stop existing?

simonh5y ago

There are multiple explanations for why the sky isnt lit up with radio and laser signals from advanced civilisation. The great filter is one explanation, that there are existential crises or threats that wipe out most civilisations or cause them to collapse to subsistence level. Nuclear war, biological weapons, ecological collapse, paper clip maximising AI, etc.

I once ran a Traveller RPG exploration campaign where one of the systems they visited looked really odd on sensors. Just fuzzy clouds and clumps and ring formations of diffuse metallic debris. It turned out it was all paper clips.

TeMPOraL5y ago

For context, the examples you mentioned are cases of the great filter lying ahead of us. The more optimistic hope is that the great filter is behind us - things like abiogenesis or multicellular life being extremely unlikely to happen. "Great filter" is just the name for "a barrier that stops life from becoming a spacefaring civilization".

This explanation is also the reason why finding basic life (say, bacteria) in the Solar System would be a cause for worry - if life evolved independently twice in the same star system, it would imply abiogenesis isn't that unlikely - thus strongly suggesting the great filter is still ahead of us.

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mathattack5y ago

I hope you snuffed them out before they took over the universe.

The surprisingly addictive game is below.

https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

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eloffOP5y ago

Humanity failing to become a technological civilization. Maybe continuing as a species, but Amish style.

bartwe5y ago

We won't be there ourselves anyways...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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grey-area5y ago

I believe the OP said 0K, not OK.

There may not be a universal law which says everything will be OK, but there is one which says everything will be 0K in the end.

eloffOP5y ago

Ah, I get it now. It's hard to see the difference!

ineedasername5y ago

nearly 0k

renewiltord5y ago

Not zero, just zero potential.

woko5y ago

I think it was a joke about zero Kelvin.

tartoran5y ago

I thought of it as being 0k as in empty of information. Kelvin is K but I like this interpretation more.

brodie5y ago

Same thing, really.

fouc5y ago

Zero entropy

sn415y ago

Maximum entropy, I think?

I've wondered about this. How can something which is having a cold death (zero kelvin) also have maximum entropy? But I am not at all an expert.

1 more reply

fouc5y ago

Oops. Brain fart :) Maximum entropy indeed

combatentropy5y ago

I thought that entropy was increasing

amelius5y ago

> I appreciate your optimism. I tend to be optimistic about the future myself. But there is no law of the universe that everything will work out ok.

mordechai90005y ago

I kind of wonder, in a half-assed amateurish way, if the underlying reality of our universe isn't just an extremely rare random fluctuation in a fluid-like medium at thermodynamic equilibrium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

witherk5y ago

You can definitely find cosmologist who believe this kind of thing, though it's rarely formalized.

hnhnhnhnhn5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

kiba5y ago

What does it mean to not pass the great filter? Humanity or their successor stop existing?

simonh5y ago

TeMPOraL5y ago

1 more reply

mathattack5y ago

I hope you snuffed them out before they took over the universe.