The Great Fermi Filter

Two years ago, I commissioned an art piece: A Fork in the Road.

Had to make sure that civilization took the path most likely to pass the Fermi Great Filters. pic.twitter.com/mYFzdAy6WF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2024

Question to Grok: What is the Fermi Great Filter?

Grok: 

The Fermi Great Filters, also known as the "Great Filter," are a conceptual framework proposed to address the Fermi Paradox, which questions the absence of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations despite the high probability of their existence given the vastness of the universe. Here's an overview based on available information:

Definition and Origin: The concept was introduced by economist Robin Hanson in his 1998 essay, "The Great Filter – Are We Almost Past It?" It suggests that there are evolutionary or developmental stages that most life must pass through, with at least one of these stages being extraordinarily difficult or unlikely to overcome, thus "filtering out" civilizations before they can become observable or interstellar.

Stages of the Filter: The Great Filter could be positioned at various points:

1. Abiogenesis: The transition from non-life to life, which might be extremely rare.
2. Evolution of Simple to Complex Life: The leap from single-celled to multicellular organisms or the development of intelligent life.
3. Development of Technology: Civilizations might destroy themselves or be unable to advance technologically due to various reasons like nuclear war, environmental collapse, or failure to manage advanced technologies like AI.
4. Interstellar Colonization: The final step where civilizations become space-faring and potentially visible to us, but this might be prevented by unforeseen challenges or self-imposed limitations.
5. Implications for Humanity: If the Great Filter is behind us, humanity would be relatively rare, suggesting we've already passed a significant barrier. This would be somewhat comforting as it implies we might continue to advance.

If the Great Filter lies ahead, it suggests that many civilizations might have existed but failed to survive long enough to colonize space or communicate across it, which would be a grim prospect for humanity's future.

Current Discussions and Theories: Some contemporary discussions revolve around the idea that AI or other technological risks might serve as the Great Filter, where civilizations might not survive their own technological advancements.

The exact nature and location of the Great Filter remain speculative, with ongoing debates in scientific communities about whether we've already passed it or if it still awaits us. This concept underscores the profound questions about our place in the universe and the challenges any intelligent life might face in becoming a long-lasting, visible civilization.

Terran note:  The Fremi Filter is an example of what Clif High refers to "gritology" in that by smashing matter to bits you can get consciousness.  It actually works the other way around , matter emerges from consciousness which is what life is.  Consciousness pervades it all, including what has been designated "non-life" which is a very low level of consciousness. Consciousness does not emerge from matter, it precedes it.   Is Elon hinting at ET disclosure?  Humanity is not only NOT rare, its ubiquitous, comprising my some estimates 470,000 civilizations.  Every wonder why it is, they only show images of grays?

What the elites fear, is you finding out you have a galaxy full of cousins and we didn't have to go through all this trouble on this the planet for millennia. 

Message to the Remote Healer

To the woman who heals horses remotely, thank you for you for requesting permission to do healing work on me in lieu of a donation in a value for value exchange. I don't know what you did but something definitely shifted. 

I lost your email, but I wanted to make sure you got this message.  Thank from all my heart!  

There are some remaining symptoms but perhaps those diminish in time?  I would say it's 75-80% better than it was!  

PS: The jokes will probably come now about me being a horses ass... but hey I can laugh at that too. 😀

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

I didn't have a usual Thanksgiving dinner, but it was a good dinner. 1/2 of an Inka chicken, with yucca fries (astonishingly good taste!) and cilantro rice.  

Last night I had my first passenger, a rider to the airport, a man flying to Denver to spend thanksgiving with his brother.  After I dropped him off at the South Terminal, I drove to the Main terminal and joined the waiting queue for drivers at that side of the airport.  The queue was over a 100 drivers, but I have over 5000 rides with this company and they tend to give me priority out of the queue and I soon  was told to drive to the pick up lot, on the way there I got a very large fare to Jarrell Texas which is about 20 miles north of Georgetown.  The new housing construction has now reached out that far.  Last time I was in Jarrell it was all older housing.  There is an astonishing amount of new homes Jarrell!

He was a black man from New Orleans, drove a semi truck for a living.  Before we even got out of the airport he had two daughters and a wife call him to check on him, much to his frustration but it was meant from love.  He just felt a little smothered and took a deep breath.   And laughed "Whata-ya-gonna do?  Family!"   "Can we stop at a gas station on the way?  I need a beer!"  I told him I'd stop at a gas station when we got past the I-35 construction work, it's a right mess right now with concrete barricades and lanes much too narrow. 

I laughed and we had a long discussion about wives and daughters and the things men go through to support a family.    He had been married for 30 years with 4 kids and me for 21 and 1 kid.   We talked on many subjects and he said to me, "how are you?"  I told him I was doing good.   I had made my mind up to be happy even though I had no where to go for thanksgiving.  I was in a great frame of mind.  This isn't the first year of this, and this will change.  This man was a delight of a customer to have, positive, and clearly living from a loving heart with his family.  He said "you know nobody ever asks men if they are okay, we are just expected to be strong and not talk about things".   "So that's what I mean when I ask how you be.  I didn't mean to sound nosey".  I told him about my NDE experience, my marriage and its ending.  How proud I was of my daughter.   I told him a lot of things I don't tell many people.  I didn't share the adventures I had with Heather on three continents but I did share some spiritual gems she shared with me and he was very receptive to those nuggets.   

He says to me "Sometimes we meet angels unawares, the scriptures say that... I could be your angel in this moment, or you could be mine!  Nothing is accidental!  I said I was aware of the scripture and I laughed.  There was something in what we talked about he needed to hear, I am not sure what it was but he seemed so relieved.  We weren't black or white, just two American men having a great conversation about life and all the things that people think is important but isn't.   Friends and family can see you through much, and sometimes friends are closer than family.    

He invited me to have thanksgiving with his family.  I really appreciated the thought behind the invitation because that's what my dad used to do to single men who were friends of his, invite them over for Thanksgiving dinner.   It's an American tradition in its best form.  He needed to be with his daughters who he hasn't seen in a few month, but I almost took him up on it.  I was preoccupied with the faulty digital map I had, it wanted me to drive through an occupied house to get the destination.  The route was complete nonsense.  He took my silence as a polite decline, I just can't talk when dealing a convoluted driving problem.  Imagine that in a self driving car!  I asked him for the street address and Google maps had a more accurate route to his daughter's house.  There was another road about a mile down the road that I needed. 

We found the house and he got his luggage and thanked me once again for the ride, family poured out of the front door and I made my way home.  I always marvel at who gets in my car.  Nothing is accidental. 

 

You Are the Universe

 

The Big Gaping Security Hole in the Network behind your phone

Your SMS messages, and two factor security verification on SMS is not secure! 

Health improvements

 

I've had two major issues the last 3 years.  The first was a problem with pain in the knees.  The other is an issue with water in my body, which exercise helps a lot with, but it's hard to walk if your knees are painful.  

With the knees I thought at first it was arthritis given my age but began to notice it varied with shoes I wore, and was actually ligaments below the knew that were sore.  Not the joint itself. I didn't have much of problem in the alps with my knees and I did a lot of hiking there.  But I had some Osolo Italian hiking boots with very hard leather and rubber soles and I haven't found a good replacement yet for them.   

Since about 2014 shoe makers have gone to making soles from molded EVA plastic, the kind of foamy stuff you'd see on the bottom of Nikes'.   My casual shoes had it, my sandals had it.  All my footware except for one pair of dress shoes with leather soles, which made my knees feel good.   That was when I noticed it wasn't arthritis bothering my knees, it was the unstable EVA rubber stressing my knee ligaments.  Once I proved that stressed out ligaments (from knee wobble) was the issue, I got some recreational shoes with an old "converse style" sole with a hard rubber.  I found some Reebok deck shoes with a converse style sole and my knees have not hurt for over 6 weeks. problem solved. 

I haven't resolved the water thing, and I have the meds to take if it gets out of hand.  The doctors say it's my heart, which pumps fine but seems to have an issue on the relaxation side of the pump.  After a check up with a cardiologist, who seemed very knowledgeable, he told me my condition looks like congestive heart failure but my heart actually pumps really well. But when things go bad. with too much water, the heart expands and it cascades into situation that has all the symptoms of congestive heart failure. And they think the reason the water has been staying in my body is because of the heart. Yet I show no sign of kidney disease.  They think my heart is just not pushing blood through the kidney's fast enough.  I don't I have high blood pressure.  Just this dang water issue.  And he told me they really don't know what triggers the hospital incidents I experienced the last two years. 

I've been thinking about my diet, and what might be different than other people and I think it's the amount of eggs I eat.   I love eggs.  I love omelettes in every shape and form and a good omelette takes 3 eggs.   I often ate them every day.  I don't use salt on them usually.  Eggs have a lot of albumin in them but apparently that's okay with healthy kidneys.  I always try to buy organic eggs, but that's no guarantee the chickens aren't being fed transgenic corn with BT toxin in it or something worse. Inflammation can cause water retention.  So I am going on that hunch, and nothing more, I'm cutting my egg consumption way back and see if that makes a difference.  I am seeing signs that hunch might be right, but too early to say yet.  

The body is very complex array of analog systems, hormones, signaling chemicals and frequencies and all of it is affected by our emotions.   The reductionist view of the body doesn't really fix anything, and drugging one system, upsets another, and it gets worse the more meds one is on.  

Simple manifestations

 

Yesterday I found my car with two flat tires.  The left rear had a slow leak for months, which required re-filling every 4-5 days.  I knew it needed to be looked at.  My front right tire was flat in my garage when I came out to drive it. I wasn't sure the reason but I knew I had to get to a tire store to get them both repaired. I had probably enough time after refilling to the tire to reach the store.

I used the Yelp app and found a local store which said they repaired tires as a free service. Good deal!  I got to the tire store and the service guy found a screw in the front tire (there's a lot of construction in Austin) and he thought that'd be no problem.  When he looked at the slow leak, he said this could be a problem.  

He took me in the office and said if they found any "safety issue" with a tire they would not remount the old tire.  I told him I didn't have the $200+ to buy a new Michelin climate tire (which works very well in the kind of rain Austin gets - its a "sticky" tire when it comes to traction).  

The first tire was fixed.  Then he wheeled in the 2nd tire which had been patched before, 2 1/2 years earlier in Marble Falls just before I left the Hill Country of Texas.  the patch was on the corner from where the tire goes from the tread to the side wall, and the heat and the recent chilly weather had worked it loose.  They would not rematch it nor remount it.  Perhaps it was a liability issue, or just sales technique but I was not happy.  If that patch held for 30 months, a new patch would last longer than I'll have this car.  The car is getting old and has high mileage.  I told the sales guy I need the tire to take to Costco for any possible warranty I may have on it. 

The sales guy left, had the technician mount a used radial they had just taken off another car, which had considerable tread left.  I was given the okay to take the car.

I was driving on Highway 620 to pick up my first passenger of the night, and it dawned on me, that I was choosing to be grumpy about this tire situation but I just had a rather surprising set of circumstances happen. I got my tires fixed enough to continue working.  And it was done for free!  It ain't pretty (different brand), but it gives me time to get the tire I should have on there. As that thought crossed my mind some driver in a truck starts beeping his horn like it was stuck on autorepeat. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I thought of the horn noise more an exclamation mark on the insight I just had.  The universe is holographic and the driver himself probably doesn't know why he did that.  But I did. 

We swim in a sea of consciousness and we are ourselves are that consciousness.  Shakespeare said "To be or not to be", but he could have easily said "to smile or not to smile"...