hypothesis: the Great Filter is that every sufficiently long-lived society eventually invents and uses the Deplorable Word from C.S. Lewis's "Narnia" universe.
hypothesis: the great filter is simply an adequate understanding of physics. The galaxy (and beyond?) is happily chattering away using physics we do not understand. We are a pre-contact tribe in the jungle completely unaware of the "radio" signals passing all around us. Once we understand the principles, we can build such a radio and participate.
So "inadequate", not "adequate", right?
I for one look forward to chatting on ultrawave and being allied with the Transcend
Is this falsifiable?
But wasn’t that just a metaphor for the atomic bomb?
If so, it was a poor one - the Deplorable Word kills every single person on the planet but the speaker. Not a hint of MAD in sight.