Is human extinction imminent?

According to the general consensus of scientists, the existence of advanced intelligent life in the universe is fairly probable. However, our civilization is the only one that has ever been detected. To account for this Robin Hanson hypothesized that the failure to find any extraterrestrial civilizations implies that something is wrong with the argument. He proposed the existence of a “great filter” that acts to reduce the relatively large number of places where intelligent life might arise to the tiny number of civilizations that have actually been observed. If this is true then we may very well be headed toward imminent extinction. One of the main factors in this depends on whether or not our society is inherently self-destructive.

Without knowing exactly what to expect as we continue to evolve, a great filter could express itself as any kind of challenge or threat that would consistently eliminate the species. One of the most likely candidates for this is man-made climate change. Guy McPherson even goes so far as to speculate that humans will be extinct by no later than 2030 as a result of global warming. This seems far too soon to me, but either way, the thing about a great filter is timing. Logic dictates that there are only two potential scenarios that could arise from the great filter hypothesis. One of these would make humans incredibly special while the other would mean that we are…