- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Coaching Changes
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
The “Dark Forest” theory to explain no evidence of extraterrestrial life
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:02 am
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:02 am
Basically the idea that lots of advanced aliens are out there but they dont broadcast their existence because that would invite other more advanced civilizations to wipe them out before they become a threat.
So we are really dumb for sending out probes and radio waves trying to talk to aliens.
However I might actually welcome our new alien overlords at this point.
So we are really dumb for sending out probes and radio waves trying to talk to aliens.
However I might actually welcome our new alien overlords at this point.
41
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:04 am to Cosmo
quote:
So we are really dumb for sending out probes and radio waves trying to talk to aliens.
Is this really a question?
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:06 am to bad93ex
No it was a statement
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:08 am to Cosmo
quote:
Basically the idea that lots of advanced aliens are out there but they dont broadcast their existence because that would invite other more advanced civilizations to wipe them out before they become a threat.
Makes sense.
If ET ever responds to our "welcome" message, it's not gonna turn out well for humanity.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:08 am to Cosmo
They’re mostly too far away, not that they’re deliberately not sending messages out.
We likely won’t ever leave our solar system before we all get wiped out
It’ll take the tiny voyager crafts 70,000 years to reach the closest star
We likely won’t ever leave our solar system before we all get wiped out
It’ll take the tiny voyager crafts 70,000 years to reach the closest star
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:09 am to Cosmo
Isn't our assumption that any alien civilization that would reach the stage we have reached would be "sending out signals" at this stage of technology whether or not it is done deliberately to announce themselves to other civilizations?
In other words, would it really be possible to reach our stage of civilization and actually keep yourself in a "dark forest" during the entire time of your progress there and beyond?
In other words, would it really be possible to reach our stage of civilization and actually keep yourself in a "dark forest" during the entire time of your progress there and beyond?
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:14 am to Cosmo
quote:
No it was a statement
Are you reading through the Cixin Liu series as well? It has been a fantastic read imo.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:16 am to Y.A. Tittle
quote:
Isn't our assumption that any alien civilization that would reach the stage we have reached would be "sending out signals" at this stage of technology whether or not it is done deliberately to announce themselves to other civilizations?
Thats our assumption but it may be a bad assumption based on our naivety.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:17 am to Proximo
quote:
They’re mostly too far away, not that they’re deliberately not sending messages out.
But they may be so advanced they can quantum tunnel their way anywhere in the galaxy or even universe instantly
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:19 am to Cosmo
yes unless they figured out wormholes.. but Event Horizon has something to say about that
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:20 am to Y.A. Tittle
quote:
Isn't our assumption that any alien civilization that would reach the stage we have reached would be "sending out signals" at this stage of technology whether or not it is done deliberately to announce themselves to other civilizations? In other words, would it really be possible to reach our stage of civilization and actually keep yourself in a "dark forest" during the entire time of your progress there and beyond?
There’s no possible way we could actually keep the dark forest. Our light signature and the atmosphere around our planet are different. Plus all of the waves we send off Earth as it is without trying to send to another alien civilization. We would have to evolve to the point that we can actually hide ourselves, which requires the forethought and additional advancement, so every civilization can be found in the in between stage we’re in now
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:21 am to Cosmo
There is evidence to suggest that our solar system exists in a gigantic “void” in space that’s somewhere on the order of 2 billion light years across. A place where there aren’t a lot of objects and everything is pretty well spread out. So it’s more likely that everyone is just too far away from us.
OR
The aliens have been here for a LONG time, or visited our planet a LONG TIME AGO, and either we’re just not that interesting or they created us and we’re like an ant farm situated somewhere in the outskirts of the galaxy… once again, in a void, where no one else knows or cares we exist.
OR
The aliens have been here for a LONG time, or visited our planet a LONG TIME AGO, and either we’re just not that interesting or they created us and we’re like an ant farm situated somewhere in the outskirts of the galaxy… once again, in a void, where no one else knows or cares we exist.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:21 am to Cosmo
quote:
Thats our assumption but it may be a bad assumption based on our naivety.
Are we uniquely naive, though? Is the suggestion that there is some means to reach cosmic advanced civilization status by bypassing the sending out signals stage of development?
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:23 am to Cosmo
quote:
Basically the idea that lots of advanced aliens are out there but they dont broadcast their existence because that would invite other more advanced civilizations to wipe them out before they become a threat.
It’s extremely likely another alien civilization has noticed us by now if aliens exist, which is highly likely. What’s also theoretically possible and not necessarily less likely is that any alien civilization that’s evolved far enough to digest our signals and be able to act on them at a capacity to take over Earth would also have evolved to a point beyond violence, at which point they would have no need to take over Earth. That civilization also likely has everything it needs and has no reason to harvest resources from Earth. It’s likely a very very brief period in the evolution of a species that the species would be a risk to other planet’s species
Edit: one potential alien theory that’s been put out there is that some lesser intelligence aliens are the butt probing types, but that they’re generally kept from doing serious harm by higher intellect species that protect Earth while our race evolves, until we reach a point to engage on an interstellar level
This post was edited on 9/2/25 at 11:27 am
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:25 am to RockinDood
I was watching some program the other day about the meteor that took out the dinosaurs. Basically, that was the event that allowed the mammals to flourish and led to our becoming the apex species on the planet.
There is evidence that the location it landed on the Yucatan just so happened to have the right materials to cause the massive blackout of the sun. If it entered our atmosphere 30 minutes later or prior, it would have landed in a different area and we'd never have developed in this way. Dinos might still be ruling the earth
kind of wild to think about.
There is evidence that the location it landed on the Yucatan just so happened to have the right materials to cause the massive blackout of the sun. If it entered our atmosphere 30 minutes later or prior, it would have landed in a different area and we'd never have developed in this way. Dinos might still be ruling the earth
kind of wild to think about.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:27 am to Cosmo
I thinks safe to assume one of three things
1) there are no aliens out there
2) aliens exist, but the limits of space travel and distances are such that no aliens are likely to ever be capable of contacting us
3) aliens exist but aren't traditional humanoid beings in the sense we think and don't have the capacity for travel or deep space communication
1) there are no aliens out there
2) aliens exist, but the limits of space travel and distances are such that no aliens are likely to ever be capable of contacting us
3) aliens exist but aren't traditional humanoid beings in the sense we think and don't have the capacity for travel or deep space communication
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:29 am to Cosmo
Watch the 3 BodyProblem on Netflix. We may just get a response! Heehee 
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:30 am to Cosmo
Not only is space really, really big, but time is a factor itself. There could have been thousands of intelligent species relatively close by, but none of them would have likely been existent at the same time.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:34 am to Cosmo
That's kind of a dumb theory, any civilization past their industrial age has radio communication, and radio signals propagate away from the planet and could be detected by other sapient species of equal or greater technological advancement. Given the vastness of any given galaxy and the limitations of light speed, a signal isolated amongst the billions of vastly stronger EMI given off by celestial objects, would take hundreds to millions of years to reach anyone that could intercept. Our entire species could live and die out before aliens even knew we existed outside of the electronic pollution we pumped into the cosmos.
Posted on 9/2/25 at 11:37 am to lazlodawg
quote:
Not only is space really, really big, but time is a factor itself.
TON618, the largest black hole we’ve found, is around 18 billion light years away
Light from it takes about 10.4 billion years to reach us (varies due to expansion of the universe). That is crazy. There’s no telling how many advanced species are out there that we’ll never see
Page 1 of 6
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News