The Dark Forest Theory
A terrifying answer to our silent universe
In nature, silence speaks volumes.
Humanity has shared for thousands of years a collective fear of the dark. 45,000 years ago we were not on top of the food chain and our ancestors learned very quickly the dangers of the night. Darkness hinders our most powerful sense, our sight. The night makes us even more vulnerable, after all we are very fragile creatures, easy to prey on.
You see, I don’t believe it’s the darkness itself that we find so terrifying. Let me explain.
Imagine for a second that you are camping alone deep in the woods. Your fire dies as the moonlight starts to creep through the tall trees, barely lighting the way back to your tent. You pack your things and go inside, believing that a thin cloth will protect you from the dark forest and it’s dangers. The depths of the night consume the dying light, limiting your sight. With nothing to see but total darkness, sounds become clearer.
Hundreds of them hit you at once, you can hear the wind gently sweep through the branches, the nocturnal animals, one by one, start to incorporate to the forest symphony. Owls hoot and shriek, creepy, but you shake it off, after all it’s not your first camping trip. You can hear the frogs in the nearby pond and the crickets too. Hedgehogs snort as they shuffle trough the undergrowth.
Suddenly, just when you are about to doze off, a disturbing realization hits you: everything has gone silent. Chills run through your skin, adrenaline rushes through your veins as your body prepares. You seem confused, your mind can’t understand what is happening but thousands of years of evolution have prepared you for this. Instinct kicks in, deep in your human mind, you know what sudden silence means: there is something dangerous out there.
A bear? You ask yourself. It can’t be possible, you made sure to discard any leftovers. Not a single animal is making a noise, the silence becomes deafening, somehow you can hear your heartbeats getting faster and faster. A scarier thought comes to mind sending chills down your spine: What if its not an animal? What if someone is lurking out there in the woods? Whatever it is, you know it would be stupid to reveal your location. Your gut feeling tells you to remain silent, to not make a single sound because deep down, you know whatever is out there, is dangerous and is hunting.
It’s not the lack of sight what we fear, it’s the sharpening of our hearing that comes with it.
In nature, sudden silence means that some sort of predator is nearby. When a threatening predator is in the area, animals hide and don’t betray their location with noise because that mistake might get them killed. This phenomenon is common in the wilderness.
In the darkness, you can’t know for sure the intentions of whatever lurks outside, so your only safe option is to stay put.
Maybe the universe is like a dark forest. To ensure your civilization survival, your best bet is to remain hidden, undetected, because you don’t know what or who might be looking.
The dark forest theory suggests that the reason why we haven’t found any alien civilization is because they are deliberately keeping quiet.
This a terrifying explanation if you carefully think about it. Liu Cixin, the author of the theory, explains it like this:
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him.
Maybe in the universe, just like in a forest, silence might be a warning about something. Lacking assurances, a civilization safest option is to stay quiet and monitor the others.
If this is the case, humanity has lit a huge campfire in the middle of a dangerous place full of hunters and predators. Even worse, we’ve been actively trying to make contact with every alien species on a one hundred light year radius, thinking naively we haven’t made contact yet. Truth is, maybe we already have, and they may be wordlessly watching us right now, lurking in the darkness of deep space.
