If we can't make it then we were too weak to make it. The crippling altruism and treachery within our own ranks will have done us in and the world will have to wait a long period of time for such intelligence to re-emerge, hopefully this time more prepared to survive through this stage. Scientists often ask why, in a universe as vast as ours, are we seemingly the only intelligence? It might be that intelligence is too closely tied to altruism, empathy, and self-destruction. That would mean this cycle is repeating itself everywhere and we have discovered what the Great Filter might be.