Fascinating! I'd never heard the term "the great filter." 

In a way it reminds me of the story about the Tower of Babel. Humanity had gotten advanced enough to build the tower and God applied a "great filter."

I worry that our whole modern world knows more than is good for us.  For the first time in human history, we have the capability to easily destroy ourselves in a matter of only a few hours.  Cosmologists speculatively call this "the great filter" as a possibility that we don't see life everywhere commonly in the universe.

Fascinating article. The very beginning - how to show that humans always make mistakes is an idea I am likely to steal. 

There are myths in almost every culture that warn us that it is possible to know and desire too much for our own good. Whether we’ve engaged with them deeply or superficially, the stories of Adam and Eve, of Prometheus, Icarus and Faust are inscribed on our souls. And whenever science and technology enter dark and uncharted waters, it becomes common to look back upon these stories like stars in the night’s sky, hoping for some sort of guidance.

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