War as a Causal Collapse: From Current Conflicts to the Civilizational Great Filter

This paper reinterprets war as a large-scale entropic event resulting from causal incoherence and semantic collapse within civilizational systems. Drawing from thermodynamics, network theory, and systemic philosophy, it frames modern conflicts not as isolated geopolitical events, but as emergent symptoms of a civilization’s inability to manage internal entropy debts. Through case studies ranging from World Wars to current conflicts such as the Israel-Iran escalation, we demonstrate that war functions as a selection mechanism within the Great Filter—an ongoing, natural process that eliminates unsustainable civilizations. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of “mental cannibalism” to describe the erosion of shared meaning and moral coherence under prolonged stress. Finally, the paper outlines the structural reforms necessary to achieve low-entropy transitions and avoid collapse, urging the global academic and leadership communities to recognize the Great Filter not as a distant hypothesis, but as a present and accelerating reality.