Twenty years ago today, I introduced the phrase “The Great Filter” in an essay on my personal website. Today Google says 300,000 web pages use this phrase, and 4.3% of those mention my name. This essay has 45 academic citations, and my
Do you propose that the rest of humanity makes no intellectual progress without academia? Whilst academia may have been one of the homes of abolition, the same academia is also one of the homes of slavery. No one has a story about how the underground railroad ran through Harvard Yard.
I just can't picture the rarefied air of a gated community feeding the souls of open minded people. When I picture a gated community, I see a master-planned community. One with little room for--or even fines imposed upon those who dare to personalize their homes. My father-in-law was fined for moving the address placard from one side of his porch to the other ... where it could be properly illuminated at night by the porch light.
Let me think ... which blogger is it who has a post concerning the abstract subject of gender variability being shunned by academia.
I think the fact that the paper has not even been "properly published" yet has influenced several fields and triggered research projects (FHI would not have cared about the Fermi question without the Great Filter argument) makes it more awesome. Long-term this is how one builds a legend. Which may still be irrelevant for paying rents, getting tenure or being recognised (all fine things), of course. But having a few slow-burner papers that are truly useful are in a sense a long-term investment.
You coined that? Damn, never knew. I know you posted this (in part) to gain respect from those few that didn't know (like me), but though I'm usually adverse to being manipulated into an emotion when I'm conscious of the manipulation, I'll avoid that response this time and let you know you successfully upped my respect.
"the very hard filter steps should be roughly equally spaced in our history" I was looking for more on this claim, found that your essay has a brief technical appendix, and then references [Hanson 96] for more details. The link in your essay for that reference now seems to lead to a 404 Not Found error. Do you have an updated link for more discussion of the interesting math behind "all hard steps have roughly the same distribution over durations, regardless of how hard they are"?
So wrong you are. That's exactly what ordinary people do every time they utter the phrase "Great Filter". You overshot your mark. You reached directly into the beating hearts of every one of us that has ever lived, and will ever live. Perhaps even further than that.
What will our successful descendants be like 20 million years from now? Will they share knowledge of your "Great Filter" with other species that may be encountered or eventually evolve in the distant future?
Whatever percentage you want to put on it, that is your contribution to saving all mankind. How many men can put a number like that on anything they have done? How many academic institutions can? How many nations can?
Nothing I say here can adequately express my sense of awe and wonder at the cosmic horror you have plucked from the stars like a toy. You made it look easy. You did your part. You gave us the words for our problem. It's our turn now. We CAN beat this thing.
Why worry about academic influence when you have influence in the larger culture. Presumably academic influence is a means to that, but not the terminal goal.
no worry fear etc for such or anyx, do things not worry, fear things, no such thing as influence or not. no have to fear.
You're aware you wrote this on the blog of an academic whose post you just read, right?
So who should we pay attention to? The Titans of Industry? Like you think they're less insular?
>Today Google says 300,000 web pages use this phrase, and 4.3% of those mention my name.
Congratulations!
You're influence would spread wider and faster if you did interviews with Joe Rogan instead of Robert Wright.
Who was it that quoted ...
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Do you propose that the rest of humanity makes no intellectual progress without academia? Whilst academia may have been one of the homes of abolition, the same academia is also one of the homes of slavery. No one has a story about how the underground railroad ran through Harvard Yard.
I just can't picture the rarefied air of a gated community feeding the souls of open minded people. When I picture a gated community, I see a master-planned community. One with little room for--or even fines imposed upon those who dare to personalize their homes. My father-in-law was fined for moving the address placard from one side of his porch to the other ... where it could be properly illuminated at night by the porch light.
Let me think ... which blogger is it who has a post concerning the abstract subject of gender variability being shunned by academia.
But its where a large fraction of intellectual progress happens, at least on abstract questions.
which is why most people with a brain ignore academics and academia .. it's just a social club in a gated community
I think the fact that the paper has not even been "properly published" yet has influenced several fields and triggered research projects (FHI would not have cared about the Fermi question without the Great Filter argument) makes it more awesome. Long-term this is how one builds a legend. Which may still be irrelevant for paying rents, getting tenure or being recognised (all fine things), of course. But having a few slow-burner papers that are truly useful are in a sense a long-term investment.
You coined that? Damn, never knew. I know you posted this (in part) to gain respect from those few that didn't know (like me), but though I'm usually adverse to being manipulated into an emotion when I'm conscious of the manipulation, I'll avoid that response this time and let you know you successfully upped my respect.
In the above I link to here from "related math paper": http://hanson.gmu.edu/hards...
"the very hard filter steps should be roughly equally spaced in our history" I was looking for more on this claim, found that your essay has a brief technical appendix, and then references [Hanson 96] for more details. The link in your essay for that reference now seems to lead to a 404 Not Found error. Do you have an updated link for more discussion of the interesting math behind "all hard steps have roughly the same distribution over durations, regardless of how hard they are"?
So wrong you are. That's exactly what ordinary people do every time they utter the phrase "Great Filter". You overshot your mark. You reached directly into the beating hearts of every one of us that has ever lived, and will ever live. Perhaps even further than that.
What will our successful descendants be like 20 million years from now? Will they share knowledge of your "Great Filter" with other species that may be encountered or eventually evolve in the distant future?
Whatever percentage you want to put on it, that is your contribution to saving all mankind. How many men can put a number like that on anything they have done? How many academic institutions can? How many nations can?
Nothing I say here can adequately express my sense of awe and wonder at the cosmic horror you have plucked from the stars like a toy. You made it look easy. You did your part. You gave us the words for our problem. It's our turn now. We CAN beat this thing.
Thank you.
I posted your article at reddit's /r/GreatFilter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gr...
I aspire to influence those who influence/generate/change ideas. Most ordinary people won't do that.
Why worry about academic influence when you have influence in the larger culture. Presumably academic influence is a means to that, but not the terminal goal.