One minute
A Confusion of Languages
Given the multitude of stars in the sky and what we’ve observed about the orbiting planets, why haven’t we observe alien life? The Great Filter is one possible explanation; perhaps there’s some tremendous physical or social hurdle to interstellar travel which no alien life has ever cleared.
When I learned of the Great Filter hypothesis, I immediately wondered if the Tower of Babel story (https://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+11%3A1-9&version=NIV) describes an ancient failure to pass the Filter. A “tower that reaches to the heavens” sounds like interstellar aspirations, particularly when “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”
Regardless, confusion of language strikes me as a fine description of how human endeavor and social cohesion is commonly attacked. When language is confused and ambiguous, people are driven apart.