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The dark forest theory works wonderfully as a plot device in the book. That trilogy is the best sci-fi I've read after Banks, Clarke and Asimov, hands down. Bu
by fsloth 7y ago
The dark forest theory works wonderfully as a plot device in the book. That trilogy is the best sci-fi I've read after Banks, Clarke and Asimov, hands down.
But, if you stop and think about it, in the real universe it has two gaping problems:
First, The Dark Forest theory depends on the capability and willingness to develop world destroying devices.
Second, it depends on the likelihood that the species you detect has not yet spread to other systems. If it has, congratulations, you have started a shooting war with an enemy whose threat level you have no gauge of. Some with an inclination of game theory might want to figure this out through better, though.
- creato 7y ago> First, The Dark Forest theory depends on the capability and willingness to develop world destroying devices. Any civilization capable of traveling to another solar system has this capability: just take one of their ships designed to accelerate to significant fractions of the speed of light and decelerate at the other end of the journey, set a course, and simply don't decelerate. > Second, it depends on the likelihood that the species you detect has not yet spread to other systems. If it has, congratulations, you have started a shooting war with an enemy whose threat level you have no gauge of. Some with an inclination of game theory might want to figure this out through better, though. There's a good chance the above described weapon would be nearly undetectable and untraceable. For at least the latter half of its journey, it's just a chunk of mass traveling through space, emitting no signals. It would also be only a small factor difference in capability (0-1 more accelerations and decelerations than an actual interstellar transit) to send it from a different part of the galaxy.