top | item 24122610

(no title)

This article reads alarmingly similar to the Kurzgesagt video about the great filter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtOGPJ0URM).

Of course, the Great Filter isn't a new concept, but provided that this is an argument made by somebody other than the person who coined the term (that was Robin Hanson I believe), combined with the fact that I read almost the entire article before then going on to find the video, I find the two too similar to write it off to simple chance.

There have been criticisms of Kurzgesagt in the past, one I can recall being the following, in video form (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2dAGU-VJcE). I've now found out that the original video was retracted and the creator issued a public apology (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcgHGslVdrg), in addition to Kurzgesagt committing to performing more scrutiny over their videos and citing their sources wherever possible.

I do applaud this last step on their part, and I understand that you have to admit that the Great Filter video was published back in 2018 before this commitment was made, but something about the lack of attribution throughout the video doesn't sit right with me, still.

discuss

TeMPOraL|5 years ago

FWIW, Great Filter is a really simple idea, and it's very well known in certain circles (e.g. LessWrong community, to formation of which Robin Hanson contributed). I personally had no idea Robin coined it, or that Bostrom wrote about it, despite reading some text of both - and yet I could still give the same explanation way before Kurzgesagt's video aired.

Which is to say, I didn't find the lack of attribution worrisome in this video, because the idea is pretty much "public domain" in the circles interested about the future. It was (as you note) before the time when Kurzgesagt decided to get super-thorough about citing their sources, and I charitably assume that the authors of the video were just aware of the concept of the Great Filter, and not necessarily where they learned about it from. It's a simple idea, easy to explain, and easy to make inferences from - so it may not have occurred to them it's worth tracking down who originally coined the term.