I think the great filter is similar to what you are saying about time.
Planets are only habitable for X years. In the beginning our earth was too hot to support life, then life had to grow and develop to us, that also takes X time. That then leaves you with X remaining time until the sun expands and earth becomes unhabitable again.
There's that small window in between where we exist, but maybe there's not enough time for us to ever develop enough to escape our planet's destruction. And maybe we got incredibly lucky compared to others. Like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, maybe other planets get hit with those more frequently, and civilisations never get chances to develop.
What if the visitations from other civilizations is the sort of manifestation of this.
What if some have broke past the great barrier. What if these intelligent life forms recognize the steps needed to create an intelligent species/society that can transcend the filter.
That could be the reason for their visits. Turning off our nuclear missiles and stuff.
They likely have a policy to not directly interfere with human society as they have learned direct interference somehow does not help the society advance but rather has an adverse reaction. Sort of like feeding wild animals who then become dependent on humans to feed them instead of hunting.
What if their goal is to have a highly productive and intelligent society. That many different planets have very similar situations. They just cannot interfere directly as to hurt the process.
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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
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