just learned about the "great filter", very interesting. I think it does mean that our observation tech is not good previously - it also sounds like if we did start observing life, the fact that we have yet to be visited / colonized by that life form means only re-affirms the unlikelihood of interplanetary travel..

according to [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter):

> So by this argument, finding multicellular life on Mars (provided it evolved independently) would be bad news, since it would imply steps 2–6 are easy, and hence only 1, 7, 8 or 9 (or some unknown step) could be the big problem.[4]