I think that lateral thinking is so extremely complex, and the ability for a man created thing to act on its own is way more complex than that, that some bot fooling around - unless it's a human behind them doing the fooling which would then go against biology where the species is concerned - is unlikely even in a million years.
It's humans that have to do it, or unthinking robots that we control, and humans hit the age barrier.
Even if age related advances get to say 1000 years per human, how long it takes to go to the next solar system at 10% the speed of light?
The great filter is still a useful metaphore of sorts as a 'be mindful of the species', not that we don't have the aztecs and other civilizations for that too - though the species itself is a bit different - but for where are the aliens, it might just be the distance is too far even for our nearest neighbours.
How long would it take us to colonize Mars for example where we'd then be able to use it as a base for the next planet, realistically speaking? Maybe a 1000 years... if at all.
It could also just be that the economics or incentives don't work. Look at Musk, one year of talking about Mars was enough for him. So maybe these things just take so long that you need to advance so much to get even to the next solar system, or perhaps even the next planet, who is to know.
All we can say is that we probably don't have a species as advanced as us at our nearest solar system. Beyond that, we can't reasonably have any idea unless we assume that advances in basic science are unlimited - when physics and biology have had very few this century compared to the last five centuries.
It's humans that have to do it, or unthinking robots that we control, and humans hit the age barrier.
Even if age related advances get to say 1000 years per human, how long it takes to go to the next solar system at 10% the speed of light?
The great filter is still a useful metaphore of sorts as a 'be mindful of the species', not that we don't have the aztecs and other civilizations for that too - though the species itself is a bit different - but for where are the aliens, it might just be the distance is too far even for our nearest neighbours.
How long would it take us to colonize Mars for example where we'd then be able to use it as a base for the next planet, realistically speaking? Maybe a 1000 years... if at all.
It could also just be that the economics or incentives don't work. Look at Musk, one year of talking about Mars was enough for him. So maybe these things just take so long that you need to advance so much to get even to the next solar system, or perhaps even the next planet, who is to know.
All we can say is that we probably don't have a species as advanced as us at our nearest solar system. Beyond that, we can't reasonably have any idea unless we assume that advances in basic science are unlimited - when physics and biology have had very few this century compared to the last five centuries.