Track By Tracks: Fractal Universe - The Great Filters (2025)

"The Great Filters" is a concept record about the Fermi Paradox. It questions why, given the billions of planetary systems present in the observable universe alone, we haven't yet been able to detect any other form of life in it.

The idea is that there must be filters somewhere that either hinder the emergence of life or make it impossible for us to detect it. Each song attempts to offer a different solution to the paradox and projects us into a potential dystopian future for humankind.

The Void Above

The album opener lays the basis of the whole concept by questioning the place of humanity in the universe.

Throughout human history, we have crafted stories that made us hold a central position in the world.

But as science progresses, we find that it is more and more difficult to find what differentiates our species and the world we live in from the rest.

With a clearer and more humble understanding of our role in the universal ecosystem, maybe we can learn to better take care of it all?

The Great Filter

In this song, many possibilities are evoked as to what could make our planet and the life it holds unique, or at least extremely rare. Maybe it's the Earth's chemical composition combined with its position in the solar system and the presence of an abnormally large satellite?

Or maybe even with perfect conditions, the emergence of life is highly improbable?

Or maybe the filter lies in the development of more complex life forms?

This song leaves us wondering, like Fermi did himself, "where are they all"?

Causality's Grip's solution to the paradox is pretty simple: the laws of physics themselves are what limit the expansion of life. Indeed, the speed of light and causality being ridiculously tiny in comparison to cosmic scales, we'll forever be limited to an infinitesimal fraction of it, and other civilizations may simply stay out of our reach forever.

The Seed of Singularity talks about the advent of AI and how it may be the fate of each civilization to create something that eventually surpasses it and becomes the "dominant species".

And the end goal from a machine-dominated civilization might vastly differ from what is conceivable by organic beings such as ourselves.

In "The Equation of Abundance" humans have willingly chosen to upload their consciousnesses to a virtual reality, where they can control their every desire and live a theoretically perfect life within their own minds. Maybe at some point this will become a "necessary step" in a world of over consumption and over population to live an "unrestricted" life, but at what cost?

Specific Obsolescence is about humans being the architects of their own destruction, by over-exploiting the planet and depleting it of all resources.

If we extend this concept, maybe it could be ingrained in every form of life to expand without caring about the consequences until no longer possible and its resultant extinction?

Dissecting the Real talks about a scientific experiment gone wrong, resulting in the creation of a black hole swallowing an entire civilization. This somehow echoes what some models had predicted could have happened when triggering the first atomic bomb.

Concealed is about the "Dark Forest" solution to the paradox, where it's in each civilization's best interest to remain hidden from the others. We know only too well how it has turned out on earth when a more "advanced" civilization colonizes another! This is also the idea behind Shad's artwork, as it was his personal favorite answer to Fermi's Paradox!

A New Cycle talks about the idea of directed panspermia.

In the story, humankind is on the verge of extinction, and the only solution to preserve life is to send probes containing life forms out in space in the hope of colonizing new planetary systems and eventually starting a new evolutionary cycle. But this newborn civilization ends up repeating the exact mistakes that led to the downfall of the first one, and eventually has to repeat the whole process again.