Space

The Dark Forest

Why We Shouldn’t Go Looking For Life

The Milky Way galaxy has approximately 200 billion stars and 100 billion planets. If even a small percentage of those planets contained life, and only a few planets had life forms sophisticated enough to form civilizations, Our galaxy would be swarming with alien life, some of which would be either searching for us or would be discoverable.

$N=R_* \cdot f_P \cdot n_e \cdot f_l \cdot f_i \cdot f_c \cdot L$

The Drake Equation – Pictured above.

The Drake equation, which makes the previous components into variables, can be used to calculate the expected number of alien civilizations in the galaxy. When entered into the calculation, it shows that there should be at least 20 civilizations near Earth. However, we have found none.

The Fermi paradox explains this discrepancy between the expected number of advanced civilizations in space and the absence of any such evidence. Throughout the past few decades, it has generated a large number of theories and solutions.

The Dark Forest theory is one explanation as to why we haven’t heard from aliens. It states that Aliens and other life forms are intentionally keeping quiet. The reasoning is laid out best in an analogy of animals in a dark forest. Animals stay quiet and hide out of fear that any life forms it meets will be hostile animals that will attempt to annihilate them. This same concept is applied to the entire universe, stating that all alien civilizations hide because the risk of meeting another civilization will mean destruction. Earth and its inhabitants, however, have not gotten this message.

If you are in an ocean, and you are very sure that there should be life around you, and there isn’t, it is likely that a shark or another predator is hiding in the same waters. Humanity has been broadcasting information out into space, searching for extraterrestrial life, and making our presence known for almost seventy years, and although the cosmos should be teaming with life, we’ve found nothing.

Is there a shark hiding in the water?

RELATED ARTICLES:

The Fermi Paradox-

https://www.livescience.com/fermi-paradox

The Drake Equation-

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1350/are-we-alone-in-the-universe-revisiting-the-drake-equation/

Alien Civilizations-

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-many-alien-civilizations-are-out-there-new-galactic-survey-holds-clue

The Milky Way Galaxy-

https://www.space.com/19915-milky-way-galaxy.html

History of Space Exploration-

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/history-space-exploration/