> The only possible scenario where this doesn't hold water There are way too many assumptions baked into what you wrote to make that the only possible scenario

> The only possible scenario where this doesn't hold water There are way too many assumptions baked into what you wrote to make that the only possible scenario where the Dark Forest is incorrect. You basically assume that the benefits of this outweigh the costs, which is entirely unfounded. You also assume that the technology for this is possible. Just saying "imagine something millions (heck I'll give you billions given how old the Milky Way is) of years more advanced than us" does not logically necessitate any of these assumptions to be true. And if the Dark Forest is so obviously true, why hasn't it happened yet? Why are we still alive? For a 10 billion year-old galaxy, you'd imagine there's at least one other sentient species out there capable of such technology (if such technology is even ever possible in this universe, which is not yet proven of course). If you believe in the Dark Forest, then you must be indiscriminate about your killing, since one key tenet of the theory is technological explosion. A hairy ape (or even a small rodent) today may be harmless but given millions of years, could be the most intelligent species in the galaxy. So taking this to its logical end would require you to kill all life (even bacteria) whenever it's detected.