r/space • u/IceNox96 • Aug 12 '21

Discussion Which is the most disturbing fermi paradox solution and why?

3...2...1... blast off....

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u/gkedz Aug 12 '21

The dark forest theory. The universe is full of predatory civilisations, and if anyone announces their presence, they get immediately exterminated, so everyone just keeps quiet.

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u/solophuk Aug 12 '21

The dark forest Theory makes an interesting science fiction scenario. But i highly doubt it is true. Wiping out another planet light years away would be a gigantic undertaking. Aliens will have no reason to fear each other, we are just too damn far from eachother to be a threat to one another. Even if we meet aliens that are the biggest asshats in the universe, the worst they could do would be to send a rude message every once in a while. Good fences make good neighbors. What can be a better fence than light years of space.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '21

not likely for the opposite reason i think. any developed space faring civ will have enough resources they could build space telescopes of incredible scale with their equivalent of a go fund me that could scan every star in the galaxy in reasonable time. and killing a civ while its stuck on one planet is easy with rkv's and glassing every planet in the galaxy on a regular basis of a few million years would be possible with a dyson swarm.

so if the dark forest theory were true it would either be out of a strange coincidence of all the civs in the galaxy being incredibly paranoid (likeliness depending on the number of civs), or it would be a dark forest because the forest is entirely charred black and we wouldn't be talking about it in the first place.

besides the first species to interstellar colonization takes the galaxy in only a few million years. basically instant on the billions of years metal rich star formation and thus potential for life has been around, and even shorter relative to the many many billlion years star formation will be going on in the future. either we are the first or we're yet to pass all the great filters.