> If a civilization is capable of the unimaginable feat of interstellar travel, surely their basic needs are well met and they aren't driven by base animal inst

> If a civilization is capable of the unimaginable feat of interstellar travel, surely their basic needs are well met and they aren't driven by base animal instincts anymore. That is a bit like saying a human isn't driven by base instincts because we are so large and advanced compared to amoeba. We have concerns and options that are so far beyond the amoeba's comprehension that it makes no sense to even talk about an amoeba comprehending. And yet we are still driven by the same basic resource-acquisition logic as any microbe. Being more advanced again is unlikely to change that. Although I do agree that the Dark Forest hypothesis seems unlikely. It seems more reasonable to suggest that gravity wells and interstellar distances are a barrier that cannot be economically overcome, so intelligent life is bound to its own rock and eventually dies there. Then the odds just favour us not detecting life out there in whatever time period we've been looking.