The Three Body Problem and a Critique of Dark Forest Theory

Is the Universe really dark and full of terrors?

Recently I found myself finishing up the first book — The Three Body Problem — within the series Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin and immediately diving into the next, The Dark Forest.

Firstly, these are excellent books, and also a rare chance to see Sci-Fi from a non Western perspective, but this isn’t a book review, more of a critique on the central premise of the dark forest theory, normally posed as an answer to the Fermi Paradox.

What is the Fermi paradox?

The Fermi Paradox refers to the dichotomy between the high probability that extraterrestrial intelligence exists and the fact that we have no evidence for such aliens — What is the Fermi Paradox? | Live Science

Essentially, given that we know life is possible, and given the billions of potential Earth-like planets in our Galaxy, why have we never seen any evidence of life outside of our own planet?

A free version of this story is available here: The Three Body Problem and a Critique of Dark Forest Theory | by Gareth Evans | Mar, 2024 | Medium

Much of this followed from the “Drake Equation”: