The Dark Forest Theory of the Universe
A terrifying answer to “where are all the aliens?”
It’s a pleasant night in the city. There’s a cool wind and a luminous moon giving off a soft light that trickles down through the buildings and mixes with the hazy but weak street lights. You’re on your way back home through the empty roads, walking in the unsettling silence. It’s unsettling because it’s deep night — the time when dangerous people come out to look for victims. It’s the time for drug deals and murders, for kidnappings and theft. Seeing the familiar figure of another person standing just down the street from you is a heart-pounding affair. There’s no clear way to tell their intentions, no sign that they’re just enjoying the view of the stars or that they have a more insidious plan on their mind. The full moon overhead, you know from watching the news, has been witness to many a person becoming a victim in the surly, uncertain dark. Walking beneath the electric lights draws attention to yourself. The safest option is to keep hidden, avoiding people and assuming the worst of them until daylight arrives. But there’s a difference between the cityscape of Earth and the all-encompassing universe: in the universe daylight will never come to flood the streets, there’s no locked home to go to and no policemen to seek out for safety. There’s only the potential for danger and the inability…
