I think that a lot of people don’t consider “We just happen to be the first technical civilization” to be a satisfactory solution to the Fermi paradox. It is the fact that this region wasn’t already teeming with life that points to the presence of a Great Filter.
Your proposal conjoins this response to the Fermi paradox with the further claim that we will go on to squelch any subsequent technical civilizations. So your proposal can only be less satisfying than the above response to the Fermi paradox. The problem is that, if we are going to be this region’s Great Filter, then we have come too late to explain why this region isn’t already teeming with life.
Yep, that’s what I meant. I wonder if anyone raised this point before, it sounds kinda obvious.
I think that a lot of people don’t consider “We just happen to be the first technical civilization” to be a satisfactory solution to the Fermi paradox. It is the fact that this region wasn’t already teeming with life that points to the presence of a Great Filter.
Your proposal conjoins this response to the Fermi paradox with the further claim that we will go on to squelch any subsequent technical civilizations. So your proposal can only be less satisfying than the above response to the Fermi paradox. The problem is that, if we are going to be this region’s Great Filter, then we have come too late to explain why this region isn’t already teeming with life.