The Dark Forest, Aliens, and a Hostile Galaxy



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When we look up into the night skies, all we see is absence and silence, but could our galaxy be a dark forest full of hidden predators waiting to consume us?

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Episode’s Narration-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/the-dark-forest-aliens-and-a-hostile-galaxy-narration-only

Credits:
The Dark Forest, Aliens, and a Hostile Galaxy
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 377a, January 15, 2023
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur

Editors:
David McFarlane
Donagh Broderick

Graphics by:
Darth Biomech
Ken York
LegionTech Studios

Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Markus Junnikkala, “Hail the Victorious Dead”, “A Memory of Earth”
Stellardrone, “Red Giant”, “Ultra Deep Field”
Sergey Cheremisinov, “Labyrinth”, “Forgotten Stars”
Taras Harkavyi, “Alpha and…”

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27 thoughts on “The Dark Forest, Aliens, and a Hostile Galaxy”

  1. Hey Arthur, you say some things about Ai safety some times that show you have not looked into the problem much. Any "why don't they just.." is really not going to work hey and the solutions you have proposed from time to time are total death traps and illustrate how bad the problem is well when you dig down into to them and see they really don't work. Robert Miles on YT is a good start hey

    Reply
  2. Persinally i think its quiet because the window of "loud" tech is small. As most species evolve, thier tech will get more widespread, and by necessity, more focused, efficient, and encrypted. Give it another 100 years and we'll probably be effectively silent, with nothing strong enough to even overcome the static of our star. You'll get to a point where you'll only be heard if you intentionally broadcast. Dark forest, if others come to a similar solution, will preclude that. I think its less dark forest and more scardy cat forest.

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  3. Best of luck for the new year, lots of love and happiness to you, to your growing family, and hopefully for a successful surgery and recovery! You deserve it. We love you.

    Reply
  4. I could imagine seeing a totalitarian dictatorship, like, say, North Korea, only scaled up towards encompassing an entire civilization, promoting the Dark Forest Theory as a matter of policy when dealing with extraterrestrial civilizations in order to keep the populace in line with their desires, making these civilizations fanatically isolationist at best, and fanatically genocidal at worst.

    Reply
  5. My guess is that the galaxsy is empty enough that we will never find life or there is so much life that natural selection kicks in and the only long term survivors are super intelligent AI's that blast anything they see. You only need one race building relativistic kill missiles or a machine designed to build relativistic kill missiles in order to destroy most planets or suns in the galaxy. Which is what Issac Arthur's dison beam episode is all about.

    Reply
  6. the only reason to have an alien civ bomb some world in a galaxy with third parties is it being a false flag operation, like "hey this species which appear to competing with us on the galactic stage is a real asshole isn't it ? we should take measures against them and set us as the world, i mean galactic, police"

    Reply
  7. Nasa scientist John Brandenberg discovered 2 nuclear isotos/ depositions on Mars surface that could only be artificially created…he traced deposition levels that indicated 2 seperate MASSIVE NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS…I guess ET didn't "phone home" this time…

    Reply
  8. But what if an answer to the fermi paradox is much simplier? Like… the interstellar/FTL travel is simply not technically possible? So there are countless sentient races across the galaxy but all of them are bound to their solar systems and that's it.

    Reply
  9. Congratulations to you and Mrs Arthur on adopting the three little Arthurs. It's also good to hear you've solved your speech impediment (though, to be honest it's kind of your signature and it's never actually bothered me, so it'll take some getting used to from my end!)

    Reply
  10. Stargate universe dealt with drones in an interesting way
    They were only inhabiting one galaxy, and operated with a mother ship which would give the drones orders. Those orders were to attack any active technology that it detected.
    You could spoof the drones into thinking you were also a drone or destroy the mother ship but as the drones were so small it was hard to defend against them.

    They also figured out that The Destiny, the main ship in the show recharged in class M, N and O stars and figured out the Destiny was going along a specific path, they then setup a blockade on each star along the way to outside of the galaxy

    The cumulative toll this took on the ships was extreme and they couldn't fight them each time they needed to refuel

    Drones don't even need to kill you with their weapons to make your life hard

    They also figured out that the Gates would emit an extreme sub space signal once dialled meaning the crew were unable to get supplies from planets

    Reply
  11. I call bullcrap on what Michio Kaku said, that either we are alone in the universe or we are not and both are equally terrifying.

    I am COMFORTED by the idea that there might be other life out there and being ALONE in the universe scares me way more. I think every effort should be made to make contact. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

    Reply

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