Are trees the great filter?

>>8432638
At first I though it would be another stupid meme about photosynthesis and CO2, but this is interesting. Was it ever researched ?

File: 0010e476f896e34da9e38757fb9506c6[1].png (2MB, 1600x900px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1600x900px

>>8432638
In some planets, the trees gain sentience, and live happily in harmony.

The silence is because humanity is an aberration and all other planets are content within themselves.

File: 1464551663630.jpg (452KB, 1600x900px) Image search: [Google]

452KB, 1600x900px

>>8432647
Well I have found this blog post, but no scholarly articles.
http://stanericksonsblog.blogspot.hu/2015/07/the-great-filter-trees.html

>>8432664
kek

you could build all of this out of Bambus too. Bambus is a grass, not a tree. So basically every Kind of thicker grass will do.

Wood has evolved a few times, though. The first forests were made of woody ferns, then after the Permian Triassic extinction the gymnosperms took over. Finally after the Cretaceous angiosperms took over. What's interesting about this is that the first angiosperms were herbaceous, meaning they evolved wood independently.

You can only use Wood if you have Stone Tools. So Stone Tools are what made the difference. Wood is especially important to make fires. But you can use other stuff for that. Its true though that civilization would take waaaayyyy Longer probably if we wouldnt have Wood. But eventually it would develop.

>>8432638
I don't see how it can be unlikely. Evolving height and rigidity upon landfall is pretty much inevitable for a photosynthetizing lifeform. The niche is very easy to fill and very beneficial.

>>8432704
>You can only use Wood if you have Stone Tools. So Stone Tools are what made the difference.
Yeah but stones are pretty abundant on any planet with land, and basic stone use didn't have to be invented, unlike fire or the wheel (I'm not talking about those arrowheads, just using stones for hammering and filing).

>Wood is especially important to make fires. But you can use other stuff for that.
Yeah , but you get the most fuel per square meter from trees, because they are tall, and they are abundant during the whole year, unlike other plants. If all we had to burn were shitty herbs, we'd probably still be in the bronze age, because good luck melting iron economically in some weed furnace. Although I guess we would have domesticated some large plant to have more mass we can burn.

>Evolving height and rigidity upon landfall is pretty much inevitable for a photosynthesizing life-form.
Well yeah, as other anons pointed out bamboo is a good substitute for trees, and trees have evolved on two different occasions (although it could be argued that producing tree-like plants is something Earth's evolutionary history was exceptionally good at, and it's not the norm).

>>8432638

Wood gave us fire. Fire is a primitive form of technology that enabled us to cook our food (which improved our diet), provided security and allowed us to torch our enemies homes.

>DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE US

>>8432638
A planet does not only need to be able to sustain intelligent live it also need the have the right resources and environment for technology to become a thing.

A water world might have life more intelligent than any non-human primate here on Earth, it's very hard for them to evolve technology.

But I don't think it's all about trees though, I'm sure most worlds that would evolve intelligent life would also have something like plants and trees.

>>8432638

Again the same false assumption that any alien life necessarily follow the same evolutionary path as ours.

I will give you this notable quote of Thor (stargate)

Carter: How am I supposed to help figure out how to defeat kiron-based technology if I don't even know what a kiron is?

>Thor: The Asgard would never invent a weapon that propels small weights of iron and carbon alloys by igniting a powder of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur.

Carter: Okay, I get your point.

Thor: We cannot think like you.

PS : CAPTCHA was " Select all images with trees."

>>8432859
I was talking about technology though, and it's not like there other ways to do technology than the way we do it, you won't invent the computer before fire. Stargate is not reality.

>>8432638
Interesting theory, but Bamboo is a grass that is usable like wood.

Alien megaflora might have wood-similar properties. Chitin might be a wood replacement.

>>8432859
Carbon compound Biomaterials as a basic planetary resource seems to be a simple enough assumption.

But I agree with your technology. functional gunpowder and useful steam engines could have been invented thousands of years earlier or later.

Hero's engine long predates gunpowder weapons in Europe. But we have hundreds of years of gunpowder combat before steamships came into use and even later for all steel armored ships.

Technology and ideas are not inevitable points on a video game technology tree.

Why invent the vacuum tube if you already have semiconductors?

>>8432638
>Wood is good fuel available in vast quantities
not so vast any more, friendo
http://www.fao.org/forestry/energy/en/

>>8433229
>Technology and ideas are not inevitable points on a video game technology tree.
Yeah well good luck inventing electricity before you invent smelting (inb4 graphite conductors), or inventing smelting before discovering fire.

Well
One day while Andy was masturbating, Woody got wood. He could no longer help himself! He watched as Andy stroked his juicy kawaii cock. He approached Andy which startled him and make him pee everywhere on the floor and on Woody too. Being drenched in his urine made him harder than ever! Woody: "Andy Senpai! I'm alive and I want to be INSIDE OF YOU." Andy: "Oh Woody Chan! I always knew you were alive! I want to stuff you up my kawaii ass!" Woody grabbed a bunch of flavored lube and rubbed it all over his head Woody: "Oh my! It's cherry flavored lube! Cherry is my favorite! Woody then stuffed his head up into Andy's tight ass! The other toys around the room watched intently as Woody shoved his head back and forth into Andy's nice ass, continuously making a squishy wet noise. The other toys also became aroused and they all gathered around Woody and Andy and started to urinate all over them, and then they started to masturbate. Andy: "Oh my goodness, Woody Chan! You are churning my insides up so well! Your nose is stimulating my prostate! OH YES! All the other toys became so aroused by this, that they could not help themselves anymore! They pushed Woody completely inside, and they all went inside. All of them wanted to be inside Andy's nice round ass. Andy: "No wait guys! My ass cannot hold this much! I'm getting so full! All the toys went inside of poor squirming Andy and pretty much, he was beyond full, and died from having his insides completely damaged. The mother came inside and found Andy, dead with a huge ass hemorrhage on his anus, with a HUGE belly full of toys.

>>8433313

>Yeah well good luck inventing electricity before you invent smelting (inb4 graphite conductors),

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_organ

>or inventing smelting before discovering fire.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometallurgy

When the earliest hominis came around, earth's land masses for the first time where dominated by large grass plains. That is very important, because it is probably living in those grass plains why man started to walk on 2 feet. He had a great Advantage over other animals by being able to look further over the plains. Walking on 2 feet is what enabled man to develop hands. With These he was able to build Stone Tools. grass was also the simplest theoretical way to ignite fire, because they can be easily dried and stored. Man learned millions of years ago how to create fire, and it was the first Technology that gave him a clear survival Advantage. Man now was able to cook Food, which greatly reduced diseases from Food. He could use fire to warm him up, Keep predators away, and also be productive while other animals only could sleep. Fire is maybe the most important Technology of mankind. Without it, chances are pretty good that the homini would have developed in a way to strengthen their bodies (for example larger teeth, etc.), instead of enlarging their Brains. Thanks to fire man had such a big survival Advantage that they eventually developed into the smart homo sapiens.

Once that Stadium was reached grass again was the main reason for man to start Building civilizations. Grass is what made it possible for humans to eventually settle down. Wheat, corn, Rice, are the Basic Foods for civilization. When men learned how to grow crops it took only a couple of thousand years until the first civilizations emerged.

So the wast grass lands of the earth are maybe the main reason why the ancestors of modern humans were able to evolve to a smart species in the first place. Without Savannahs maybe there wouldnt be Hands, without Hands no Stone Tools and fire, without fire no large Brains (ans everything that Comes with it, e.g. language, more complex Tools, complex social structures, etc.), and eventually no agriculture and no civilization.

>>8433360
>Electric organ
That is useless in itself. Without conductors and a stable current source you can't study electromagnetism. Consider how the ancient Greeks knew about static electricity, yet it took millenia for us to discover electricity.
>Hydrometallurgy
Yeah """"technically"""" they can get the metal out of the ore, but how are they going to use it to make tools without remelting the metal? Protip: they won't (inb4 they magically invent arc furnaces before ever discovering fire).