Jonathan Eaton's Blog - Posts Tagged "aliens"
The Dark Forest
I read an interesting article yesterday about “The Dark Forest” theory. I’d never heard of it before. The Dark Forest theory states that the reason we’ve never detected any other technologically advanced lifeforms in our galaxy is because they are all hiding. They hide because any time a technologically advanced lifeform reveals its existence, a more technologically advanced lifeform (let’s call them TALFs) leaps out and gobbles it up.
It seems to me there is one big problem with The Dark Forest theory: Us. We are the only data point we know of, and we’re not making any attempt to hide. Or to put it another way, 100% of the TALFs we know of are making no attempt whatsoever to hide their existence from the rest of the galaxy.
Now, here’s where things get interesting: The question is bound to come up as to whether we should go so far as to broadcast our existence. And the Dark Forest Theory would suggest we shouldn’t. If there are ancient TALFs out there waiting to gobble up emerging TALFs, we’d be done for, and given that possibility, however slight, why take the risk?
Ah, but think about it. Because we are the only datapoint we know of, logic dictates that we must broadcast our existence. The best and only model we have for the behavior of TALFs is our own. If we choose to hide, we must assume other TALFs would make the same choice, and we won’t know what’s out there until we slip up and get gobbled up. But, if we choose to broadcast, we can assume other TALFs would as well, the Dark Forest Theory fails, and the galaxy isn’t such a scary place.
“Be the change you seek”—it’s not just for Earthlings anymore.
It seems to me there is one big problem with The Dark Forest theory: Us. We are the only data point we know of, and we’re not making any attempt to hide. Or to put it another way, 100% of the TALFs we know of are making no attempt whatsoever to hide their existence from the rest of the galaxy.
Now, here’s where things get interesting: The question is bound to come up as to whether we should go so far as to broadcast our existence. And the Dark Forest Theory would suggest we shouldn’t. If there are ancient TALFs out there waiting to gobble up emerging TALFs, we’d be done for, and given that possibility, however slight, why take the risk?
Ah, but think about it. Because we are the only datapoint we know of, logic dictates that we must broadcast our existence. The best and only model we have for the behavior of TALFs is our own. If we choose to hide, we must assume other TALFs would make the same choice, and we won’t know what’s out there until we slip up and get gobbled up. But, if we choose to broadcast, we can assume other TALFs would as well, the Dark Forest Theory fails, and the galaxy isn’t such a scary place.
“Be the change you seek”—it’s not just for Earthlings anymore.
