What do we do if SETI is successful?

(www.universetoday.com)

174 points leephillips | 1 comments | 20 Oct 25 17:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.218s | source

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leeroyjenkins11 ◴[20 Oct 25 20:26 UTC] No.45648851[source]▶

Get better camouflage so we don't get get found in the Dark Forrest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis

>The name of the hypothesis derives from Liu Cixin's 2008 novel The Dark Forest, as in a "dark forest" filled with "armed hunter(s) stalking through the trees like ghosts". According to the dark forest hypothesis, since the intentions of any newly contacted civilization can never be known with certainty, then if one is encountered, it is best to make a preemptive strike, in order to avoid the potential extinction of one's own species. The novel provides a detailed investigation of Liu's concerns about alien contact.

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lordnacho ◴[21 Oct 25 21:04 UTC] No.45661688[source]▶

>>45648851 #

But why do we think the aliens as a polity will behave in a way that fits into our own concept of competition between groups?

Couldn't they have some other way of seeing things?

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1. bluGill ◴[21 Oct 25 21:11 UTC] No.45661766[source]▶

>>45661688 #

They could. However their different way might be worse than our concept.

Though survival of the fittest is likely a law and so they will have a concept of competition between groups of some form (though their definition of groups will be different) simply because those without will be destroyed by the first group that does have that concept.

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