Why I Don’t Buy The Dark Forest Hypothesis

Cool Worlds May 31, 2025
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Space, astronomy, exoplanets, astroengineering and the search for extraterrestrial life & intelligence. The Cool Worlds Lab (http://coolworldslab.com), based at the Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, is a team of astronomers seeking to discover and understand alien worlds, particularly those where temperatures are cool enough for life, led by Professor David Kipping.

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Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off. Many of you wanted me to talk about the Dark Forest Hypothesis - an idea popularised (bit not limited to) the the sci-fi novel and Netflix series, "The Three Body Problem" by Liu Cixin. So in this video I'll explain what dark forest says and why I don't buy it. (Note - this is *not* an analysis of Cixin’s story beats set in his fictional universe, but rather the concept of dark forest in our real one! Although, I will refer to the aliens as Trisolarans purely as a placeholder example civilization). Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. → Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support → Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store → Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcast THANK-YOU to T. Widdowson, D. Smith, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, S. Marks, B. Smith, J. Kruger, S. Applegate, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, W. Evans, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, S. Thayer, T. Edris, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, B. Reese, O. Shabtay, X. Yao, S. Saverys, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, Y. Muheim, A. Stark, C. Caminero, P. Borisoff, A. Donovan, H. Schiff, J. Cos, J. Oliver, B. Kite, C. Hansen, J. Shamp, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, D. Ohman, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, T. Tarrants, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, A. Taylor, D. Wedgewood, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, B. Kingston, A. Phan Le, N. Voyton, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison & C. Fitzsimmons. REFERENCES ► Project Nash 2020, "https://www.projectnash.com/aliens-the-fermi-paradox-and-the-dark-forest-theory/" https://www.projectnash.com/aliens-the-fermi-paradox-and-the-dark-forest-theory/ ► Siraj & Loeb 2021, "The Copernican Principle Rules Out BLC1 as a Technological Radio Signal from the Alpha Centauri System": https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.04118 ► Carroll-Nellenback et al. 2012, "The Fermi Paradox and the Aurora Effect: Exo-civilization Settlement, Expansion and Steady States", The Astronomical Journal, 158, 117: https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.04450 ► Hart 1975, "Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth", Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 16, 128 MUSIC Licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist. 0:00 Hill - A Slowly Lifting Fog 2:24 Kyle Preston - Dark Tension 5:51 Kyle Preston - Up the Oregon Coast 9:41 Hill - The Planet of Lost Souls 12:28 Falls - Ripley 16:10 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Seven 20:24 Joachim Heinrich - Y 22:44 Indive - Trace Correction CHAPTERS 0:00 Dark Forest 4:20 Incogni 5:51 Game Theory 9:13 Game Theory Nuance 15:01 Berserker is Better 20:32 Closing Thoughts 22:44 Outro & Credits #DarkForest #ThreeBodyProblem #CoolWorlds

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