The Fermi paradox has something to do with this: why, if the universe is so big, have we still not found anyone? The dark forest theory suggests that we should pray never to find them, the aliens. Here’s the reason.
The Milky Way has 200 billion stars and possibly 100 billion planets. Even if there were life on a small fraction of these planets, or even if only a small percentage of these planets had intelligent life forms, our galaxy would be teeming with extraterrestrial civilizations, some of which may be looking for us as much as we look for them. The number of civilizations that our galaxy should contain can be calculated using an equation, the Drake equation: it turns out that in theory there can be at least 20 civilizations in our space corner. But after, where is everyone? Why didn’t we find the aliens?
The dark forest theory, explanation
Among the solutions to the Fermi paradox is one truly terrifying one. There dark forest theory says we haven’t found the aliens yet because they would deliberately remain silent. In other words, almost all civilizations will be forced into hiding because if they reveal their presence, they risk being destroyed. The universe is like a huge forest and every civilization he is a hunter armed, who roams the trees like a ghost. But the hunter must be careful, because other hunters just like him are sneaking around in the forest. If he finds another life form—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a child or a staggering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there is only one thing he can do: open fire and destroy them.
But how plausible is such a theory? It is enough for one civilization to behave in such a way to create such a situation. It also explains why we still don’t pick up alien radio signals, despite research done over the past century. One possible reason is that other civilizations are so afraid of being discovered that they deliberately avoid sending radio evidence of their existence.