this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- The entire showerthought must be in the title
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- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
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A Great Filter needs to explain why we don't hear radio transmissions from alien civilisations.
At the relevant distances, it could be that sending a message that would arrive as anything that stands out above the background noise of the universe would probably require a mono-directional transmission directed at a specific target, which would require a lot of specific effort that a smart enough species may see as not worth the resources. Frankly, we're smart enough to know there is alien life out there somewhere without needing to see it for ourselves, and until our planet is much healthier and our species less chaotic, what would be the point of trying to contact it?
What if it's like us but worse?
And as others have mentioned, a smarter species would likely try to hide, maybe even trying to capture as much ambient RF leaving their planet as they can so we don't find them by accident.
space big explains it pretty clearly tbh
Does it?
The Fermi Paradox which proposes the great filter suggests that despite the vastness of space we should still be able to detect radio waves from other civilisations.
The question of the great filter would not be posed, if we were unlikely to detect other civilisations because of the expanse of space.
Inverse square law. We're probavly bombarded by millions of alien signals. They're just not very loud
Oh wow you've cracked it. To think there are great physicists like Frank Drake who have made this search their life's work, and pondered this very question for decades, and you've deduced the solution with your astonishing intellect. Bravo.
It was a thought experiment meant to provoke discussion at the time, not a rigorous theorem. Check the
fccoefficient, there's much debate about its value and definition of detectability.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
You're aware Drake was one of the instigators of the SETI program right? He spent a significant portion of his life on a project that would have been pointless if you are correct.
Also dark forest theory
I think the only reason this theory exists is because it's kinda spooky and fills us with dread.
If such a civilisation existed with the power, intention, and tech to zoom around killing off other species:
I think it exists based on the behavior of creatures we've observed...