Episode 48 – “Where Are All the Aliens? The Dark Forest Hypothesis” – is now Live!
This week’s episode was dedicated to another proposed resolution to the Fermi Paradox. This one was inspired by the novel of the same name, The Dark Forest, written by Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin. The book is the second installment in the Memories of Earth’s Past trilogy, which started with The Three-Body Problem. The concept is explained thusly:
“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life — another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod — there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.“
I got an especially nice surprise while prepping this episode. While looking for possible links to include, I came across a link to the University of Edinburgh. On Halloween night in 2021, Dr. Anna Lisa Varri delivered a lecture at the Higgs Center for Theoretical Physics about the Dark Forest Hypothesis. Guess who she listed as her first source? ME! Or rather, the article I wrote for Universe Today about six months prior! How cool is that? Check it out below…
Where to Listen:SimplecastApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon Music
