Andy suggested I read
this article on the Great Filter Theory, which I wasn't familiar with. No surprise there, as there is no limit to the number of things I'm not familiar with!
I had some strong reactions to the article, which is always an interesting thing to observe. I'll share those reactions here, to hopefully gain some insight into rational thinking or perhaps my own personal delusions of what I consider rational thinking.
You've got to be kidding me! We hardly have the means to determine if we've been visited by aliens. We are mostly deaf, dumb, and blind! If different alien species were here 100,000 and 40,000 and 8,000 years ago, what would we know about it now? Even if we get lucky and find some
OOPARTs, what would that tell us? Probably nothing. There is a great deal of evidence that aliens are here currently, and what does the average person know about it? They only know what the controlled media tells them. The premise that there has been a "Great Silence" is horribly flawed, as are the following speculations that build upon it.
Ridiculous reasoning. Unknown evolutionary paths that unknown types of life could take would surely have their own unique set of "stumbling blocks".
We're special only in the limitations of our senses and the degree of our idiocy, thinking we're "the first and only intelligent civilization in the Milky Way." I think I'm going to barf at the sick arrogance of it all.
Once again, I have to point out that we hardly have any means to detect life elsewhere, unless it falls in our lap, and even then we would probably misinterpret it if we even notice it.
Maybe it only appears complex and "perfect" to us simple-minded humans. Crystals copy their orderly lattice structure quite nicely under the right conditions, and they are not even alive. I'm beginning to think creationists are ghostwriting this article.
How the Hell can we come to that nonsensical conclusion? Evolution took a long 1.8 billion year vacation, and hasn't had a day off since? Could it be that the means we have to know what happened in any detail 2 billion years ago to highly biodegradable single-celled organisms are, shall we say, close to zero?
So, my reaction to this article is that I have been intellectually groped and fondled by leering, perverted creationists because their God loves to watch. Interesting reaction, no?