Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Dr. S:

Frankly, a fresh start today helped me derive the answer. First, I started with @Gauri03's response which gave away the question. Then, my research with that question led me to "The Fermi Paradox" and when I read the Wiki, "The Great Filter" jumped right away. However, I spent sometime validating your images in the third row which took some time.

Where did I go wrong? I assumed the question yesterday as "Who am I?" and the name as "Maya" or "Illusion" and then went on to "Big Bang", "origin of life and "Nasadiya Sukta" (Hymn of Creation in the Rig Veda (10:129) which was comparable to the findings of scientists such as Carl Saga, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schordinger, Werner Heisenberg, Rober Openheimer, Eugene Wigner, George Sudharshan and Fritjof Capra. First image minus second image in the last row was Mahatma - Atma = Maha (21 Grammes assumed as weightless state of life after death), third image minus fourth image as Mahabharatha - Bharatha = Maha and the last image I assumed as either "Maha Purusha" or "Maha Vakya". I was under the impression that you were talking about "The Universal Principle" or "Aham Brahmasmi". Now I know Maha = "The Great" and the last image is "Filter".

Now, I know that I should look for the tricky scientist brain hidden behind the nickname "Destroyer of sorrow".

Viswa

 

Strip-2

Pic-1 simply points to "Fir"! That's a forest of fir trees!

Pic-2: is the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" scene from the 1932 Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie. That was supposed to evoke "me", leading to Fir + Me = Fermi. (In case you didn't know JW was an Olympic swimmer!).

Pic-3: is an optical illusion - an impossible cube or a visual paradox. I considered and rejected Escher drawings as too obvious. Gauri and PepperPot would have had that wrapped up in nanoseconds.

Together they were supposed to lead to "Fermi Paradox".

 

Strip-3:

Pic-5: This was designed to be easy with a twist. I chose that 'polarized filter' image deliberately, discarding coffee filters, air filters, or even a set of color filters for photography etc., just to give puzzlers a bit of a run-around. Again if I had chosen an image with an air-conditioning filter or a set of camera filters (instead of one), it would have been over in seconds!

Pics 3 and 4: Everybody got this as I knew you would, but I did anticipate that it might take a little while to settle on Maha = Great. However, since Shashi Tharoor called his novel version of the Mahabharata "The Great Indian Novel" I figured someone would catch on quickly. The images of course are Rishi Vyasa dictating the Mahabharata to Lord Ganesha and Bharatha worshipping Rama's sandals. It amused to have the Mahabharata and Ramayana together in one clue.

Pics 1 and 2: This was included for puzzlers who may not be Hindoos or those like Cim, who are somewhat fuzzy on the whole mythology thing and don't remember all their ACK volumes. The images are Gandhi with the Mountbattens and a movie poster for Iñárritu's film "21 Grammes". That is supposed to be the "weight of the soul" (this is what PepperPot was referring to when she said that she " ... loved the soul-searching").

So, Mahatma - soul/atman = Maha == Great.

All together should add to the Great Filter.

 

The clues in post #7644.

Pic-1: The animals are Sable, Mink, Silver Fox and Ermine (clockwise from top left). All of them are harvested for high-end fur. Again pointing to "Fur" in "Fermi". I considered posting pics of baby seals being clubbed, but rejected it as too obvious.

Pic-2 and 3: Minion - Neon ="Mi" in Fermi. This was designed to be easy, since the original was tricky.

Pic-4: Of course, these are skydiving dogs - Para-Dogs = Paradox! This was made to be tricky, but in combination with the cube earlier, should have been approachable!

 

The clues in post #7649.

Top Panel: straightforward. A lone man staring at the Milky Way -> are we alone?

Pic-1: A Settee!
Pic-2: Eric Satie, the composer of the Gymnopédies.
Pic-3: Carl Sagan/Jodie Foster/Contact (book by Sagan, film with Foster).

All pointing to SETI and "Where is Everybody?" when considered in combination with the original clues.

 

The clues in post #7659

Since "fir" and "fur" didn't seem to do the job, I went with the two Fergies.

Pic-1: Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, ex-wife of Price Andrew. A search for royal weddings, red-haired royal etc. would have brought this up even if you didn't recognize her right away.

Pic-2: Clarified butter = Ghee.

Pic-3: Fergie of the "Black Eyed Peas" (shown in the 4th panel). Easy to figure out from the L.A. Love album cover.

Pic-4: ASL for "Me"

So Fergie - Ghee + Me = Fermi.

The bottom strip is straightforward:

Skydiving (deliberately without open parachutes, since you have that clue from the dogs earlier!).

Parachute - Chute + Docks (two images, the first one from Deewar, with Amitabh as a dock-worker in the Mazagon docks in Bombay and the second one literal) -> Para + docks -> Paradox.

 

And now for the reward.
The puzzle was conceived as an excuse to introduce some extremely interesting, provocative and profoundly disturbing ideas. I will describe them in the Futurology thread in the next few posts.
For now, I simply want to direct you to this article on the Great Filter. It is worth reading for reasons I will explain later.

 

I did get the 21 gramms - movie and PPs soul searching clue

A very interesting puzzle. Thanks Dr.S