NEW VIDEO: Why We Should NOT Look For Aliens - The Dark Forest
Added 2021-12-14 15:02:01 +0000 UTCThe Universe is incredibly big and seems full of potential for life, with billions of habitable planets. If an advanced civilization had the technology to travel between the stars, at just 0.1% of the speed of light, It could colonize our galaxy in roughly 100 million years. Which is not that long given the billions of years the milky way has existed – so in principle any spacefaring civilization should be able to spread rapidly over huge sectors of the galaxy. And yet we see nothing, hear nothing, the universe seems empty. Devoid of others. This is the Fermi Paradox, which we have discussed in more detail in other videos.
Confronted with the seemingly empty universe, humanity faces a dilemma. We desperately want to know if we are alone in the Milky Way. We want to call out and reveal ourselves to anyone watching but that could be the last thing we ever do. Because maybe the universe is not empty. Maybe it’s full of civilizations but they are hiding from each other. Maybe the civilizations that attracted attention in the past were wiped away by invisible arrows. This is the Dark Forest solution to the Fermi paradox.
Comments
Hear, Hear!
Felix the Cat
2022-01-12 15:11:24 +0000 UTCFor me this version of super intelligent aliens is not very typical as the idea behind it is the chaotic evolutional survival. Even now humanity is evolving in intelligent cooperation, so it sounds much more reasonable that advanced intelligent life see bigger benefits from cooperation and diversification rather than egoistic annihilations. Even that this is another great video giving very clear picture of the state of our civilization, the fear of our own disadvantages and where we have to evolve.
Valentin Vasilev
2022-01-01 12:53:44 +0000 UTCIt’s probably beyond our cognitive reach to envision a technologically advanced spacefaring or versefaring species. Much more so, contact with one. Two really good attempts in recent years: the novel Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis, and this video by Neill Blomkamp: https://youtu.be/VjQ2t_yNHQs Even if the likelihood of hostile contact is minuscule, that’s only part of the equation. We need to consider what’s riding on that bet — literally everything that has ever mattered to our species, to every other species that has shared this planet, and to every other species that will ever live on this planet. Who takes any odds on a bet like that? We know so little about the universe. The most ethical plan is to watch, listen, learn, develop — and keep our mouths shut for history and posterity’s sake. Great video, as always!
H. Floyd
2021-12-23 17:55:04 +0000 UTCmama
Blue
2021-12-21 02:04:55 +0000 UTCKurzgesagt has a tendency to get philosophical.
Martin Downs
2021-12-16 01:22:19 +0000 UTCOooo
Jen
2021-12-15 18:04:51 +0000 UTCThat was a beautiful video, I truly love this channel.
ghostman
2021-12-15 17:51:59 +0000 UTCA darker part of this hypothesis, covered by Liu's third book, is the eventual possibility that multistellar civilisations erupt into civil war and self-annihilation. All of the same base conditions apply, in particular technology explosion and light-speed communications barriers. After this, you add in a drift in language and values between people living on different star systems. To explain: For us humans, our cohesion as a society fundamentally depends on mutual understanding. The light-speed barrier imposes increasingly difficult challenge to maintain synchronisation across the furthest branches of interstellar society. I mean, look at us now and examine the hops in language and beliefs required to cross the political spectrum.
Poker Chen
2021-12-15 01:01:16 +0000 UTCThank you for this stellar video. We're definitely on the precipice of self- and other species' destruction, though not total. Things will rise from the rubble. As to the aliens, I do lean toward Team "Benign Aliens, standing by to see if we self destruct then, if we pass that test (by NOT destructing, rather learning to live in harmony), inviting us to join the club." FYI, this was the premise of one of my favorite Sci Fi books of all time, "Year Zero" by Rob Reid. His concept of the "Refined League" inspires us to level up by providing a fantastic vision to aspire to. Also great critique of copyright law. A few of the other Dark Forest analogies don't work here. There isn't a steady progression of military prowess. See Afghanistan v US. It's the fourth stage of warfare, or something. "Irregular", improvised. And, for all our nuclear weapons, we don't use them and don't feel threatened really. Except when someone wants funding for something. There's a great book about that, "Atomic Obsession" by John Mueller from Oxford Press. Segueing from that, if we were serious about getting rid of atomic weapons AND dealing with climate change, we would all be pushing for a continuation of the "Megatons to Megawatts" project to use up the rest of the nukes and burn them as zero carbon fuel. So many problems to solve, so little time! On the precipice. Thank you for your great videos that help shed light on these subjects! Happy New Year to Team Kurzgesagt!
Rezwan Razani
2021-12-14 23:25:31 +0000 UTCIt's a lovely journey to get to that conclusion, and I like this piece a lot. Re the source material, it does feel like a premise that's got it's head stuck in the cold war, hense a premise that predates the internet, for perspective. It's not clear to me that the author (deep forest) has a handle on plausible outcomes of what global societies would look like. A lot of sci fi writes great stories about "what if god-kings, but in space", and that's fine, but if we're saying that it's an actual hypothesis, the likely answer is probably "what if the magna carta, but in space". It follows, unstable power dynamics, oppressed masses, all that. Monty Python's "Come see the violence inherent in the system, help help...", the French revolution, etc. Convergent evolution is physics, it follows from pressures in equivalent environments. So while it's excellent fiction that explores the nature of the human condition, it is not clear to me that this is necessarily a deep concern. The cold war is probably not a fact based hypothesis for the future of the galaxy in the real world. We're probably alone within the lifetime of our societies, it's probably fine. And if we're not alone, we're more likely to be subsumed by unbalanced trade agreements that disadvantage us in ways we'll only really appreciate later. But that's my present day bias. Tomorrow's reality, and whatever glories or horrors that may hold, are basically unfathomable. So please don't be scared by this beautiful video. Like the book, it helps you understand your place in the present. It helps you ask questions about how you want to conduct yourself in your own life. Etc
Brian Makepeace
2021-12-14 21:46:42 +0000 UTCthis vidéo honestly scar me ... cause it probably real ... any ways amazing vidéo !! new 3D animation love it !! and 1th time i use patreon :) happy to help you Kurzgesagt <3
SkizoChorizo
2021-12-14 20:05:04 +0000 UTChahaha, Drive and Contact cross refrence :D
Alejandro Ronda
2021-12-14 19:56:03 +0000 UTCVery humbling, honest, and self-evaluating. Thinking outside of the box. Many people / companies / agencies these days always ask themselves WHY they do things, and they never stop to ask themselves to ask WHY THEY SHOULDN'T do things. Superb and thought-provoking video! Happy Christmas Kurzgesagt!
Paul Stoner (NINZOMBIE)
2021-12-14 17:00:02 +0000 UTCI haven't watched the video yet, but I came here to say that The Dark Forest is one of my favorite books of all time. That trilogy is so thought provoking and full of original ideas. Best sci fi ever! If the video doesn't credit CiXin Liu for this concept, then it needs to!!
Brittany B.
2021-12-14 16:41:09 +0000 UTCBefore I can even finish watching this new video, I must that it is the most beautifully animated one you have put out so far! The cinematography and the depth of field within each scene is markedly more developed and helps to express the vastness of this subject matter, too! Now, to continue watching...
Forrest Young
2021-12-14 16:20:27 +0000 UTCThe Dark Forest is an interesting example of humans at the height of their intelligence dealing with an issue that cuts to the core of our most basic instincts. Every ideal is a luxury when total annihilation is on the line. Who's willing to gamble all of human history, all trace of anything anyone's ever done, not to mention every single human life, upon the hope of peace with an unknown entity? One that we may never see or understand or benefit from? Not to mention if they're anything like us, and thus at all worth saving, then they're also thinking about this. We couldn't blame them for destroying us, we'd understand. It's a terrifying thought experiment.
David Reddy
2021-12-14 15:58:28 +0000 UTCI love these open-ended videos :) I wonder what will my 5-year old think after watching this :)
Robert Klauco
2021-12-14 15:35:42 +0000 UTCThis video really needs a reference to "Remembrance of Earth's Past." series - unless there was one and I missed it?
sneakyfishy
2021-12-14 15:28:14 +0000 UTCahhh another existential crisis ✨
Neha S
2021-12-14 15:21:11 +0000 UTCAwesome!
Daniel Turner
2021-12-14 15:13:57 +0000 UTC
