Related: Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy deals with the 'Dark Forrest' idea of cosmological society. Very briefly, every civ is hyper paranoid of the oth

Related: Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy deals with the 'Dark Forrest' idea of cosmological society. Very briefly, every civ is hyper paranoid of the other ones, like hunters in a dark forest. If you shine your flashlight to see, then you run the risk of getting shot by another hunter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis I think I'm more of an economist in this regard and reject the underlying Dark Forrest theory. To me, it's not a matter of security, but a matter of scarcity. In the universe, the most scarce thing isn't moons or planets or hydrogen. It's life, and intelligent life is likely to be even scarcer. New civs in the cosmological economy/society then have the highest 'price'. I guess what I'm saying is that we should be most afraid of any alien civilization that comes at us with a lot of balloons, glitter, banners, fast-talking, and overly long contracts. The 'Used Car Lot' civilizations are the ones I think we'll need to look out for.