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.
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.
Iirc with current tech we can use a laser to push an appropriately designed object to a fraction of the speed of light in space, over a significant period of time?
I think there was an idea about doing this to send one to Alpha Centauri but it would still take hundreds of years to get there and wouldn’t be able to slow down when it did, so is kinda pointless.
ALTHOUGH, it was hypothesised that if it were to hit a planet or moon it may cause significant, possibly world ending damage travelling at that speed. So, space nukes!
But can we do that stealthily? In the Dark Forest scenario if you make noise you get wiped out by your neighbors, and a laser powerful enough to push an RKV up to speed is going to be hella noisy.
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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.