A more likely Great Filter would be a lack of distinct climates, seasons, etc. altogether. The problem that would raise isn’t that the species would be too stupid to come up with the idea of tools-to-put-on-your-body (and yet smart enough to otherwise be capable of reasoning and tool use?), but that a lack of variation over time and space would discourage the evolution of generalist or adaptive intelligence in the first place. Instead, all life-bearing planets would be dominated by highly niche-specific super-effective super-simple organisms with no real competition. This seems like a plausible explanation of the Great Silence to me, because very few planets have seasons. If inhabited planets also tend to be ‘boring’ (e.g., to have a fairly uniform temperature or terrain, or to be sheltered from major asteroid impacts), that could explain why generalist species, including adaptive reasoners, haven’t evolved.
A more likely Great Filter would be a lack of distinct climates, seasons, etc. altogether. The problem that would raise isn’t that the species would be too stupid to come up with the idea of tools-to-put-on-your-body (and yet smart enough to otherwise be capable of reasoning and tool use?), but that a lack of variation over time and space would discourage the evolution of generalist or adaptive intelligence in the first place. Instead, all life-bearing planets would be dominated by highly niche-specific super-effective super-simple organisms with no real competition. This seems like a plausible explanation of the Great Silence to me, because very few planets have seasons. If inhabited planets also tend to be ‘boring’ (e.g., to have a fairly uniform temperature or terrain, or to be sheltered from major asteroid impacts), that could explain why generalist species, including adaptive reasoners, haven’t evolved.
Could there be an inhabitable planet without distinct climates?
Yes. Why would climatic homogeneity prevent any of the building blocks for abiogenesis? At first glance, I’d expect it to make things easier for life.
I was asking whether it’s physically possible for a planet, especially one that’s got land masses, to not have climates.