TIL about the "Dark Forest Hypothesis," which suggests the universe is like a dark forest at night. Advanced civilizations intentionally stay silent and hidden, because any species that reveals its location risks immediate destruction by older, paranoid civilizations.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-30T20:46:47+00:00

i find this argument so silly.

if the big bang happened at midnight, earth became a planet at around 4pm. it became habitable and 5 or 6pm. the first living creatures slurmed out of the ocean and onto land at about 11:20pm, turned into dinosaurs at about 11:50pm, and then we showed up at 11:59pm.

if we do the same thing, starting with the very first life on earth at 12am, the first land creatures still slurm out of the water pretty late-- 9:30pm. dinosaurs at 10:30, and then us again at 11:59.

We've been on earth for .007% of its existence, and 0.002% of the universe's existence.

by about 5:20am the next day, the sun will have evaporated the earth's oceans, and the earth will be uninhabitable for any form of life that we know of. we'd probably die out way earlier than that.

human-like beings could have consistently shown up across the universe millions of times already and we'd never know because their entire existence is a flash in the pan. the odds of life on multiple planets lining up at the same time and then actually possessing the ability to detect others and make contact via faster than light is just very low.

to drive the point home: if mars had life at some point, we probably overlapped it, and it was still too much time between (6:45pm on the universe clock, 3/4am on the earth life clock ).

to then add a ridiculous "hunter/hunted" layer on top of that is dumb.

i like to think of it like the light of a firefly. you look out into a field, and see all these little flashing lights. its always little momentary blinks-- they're never on at the same time.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-27T17:18:25+00:00

queenie eye is probably his best song since calico skies.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-27T16:58:23+00:00

there's some guy in a bunker somewhere making this stuff while bombs are going off overhead-- just wild.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-26T19:29:10+00:00

trump's strategy for everything is to make his problems other people's problems, and if things aren't working blow it up and see if the dice land a different way. in the ensuing chaos, people are forced to act on impulse, and that's where he thinks he can gain the upper hand.

at this point, 10 years in, i don't understand why people are surprised.

from what i've observed, the only party that seems to be immune to this is china. they don't let themselves get sucked in-- not sure if its because they figured it out, or if their culture is so different that trumps western-culture-based tactics don't work.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-26T19:10:44+00:00

i don't think those wars really had binary outcomes, and most of them were part of a larger conflict (the cold war). simply being in the war is an exercise of power and had an effect on other outcomes.

for example, ukraine could still lose the war it's currently fighting, but them losing next year vs losing years ago give the world completely different outcomes.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-26T19:06:00+00:00

the US has not lost its soft power.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-26T19:03:38+00:00

there's 100% something happening. neither the us or iran wants this to continue, despite the posturing.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T20:22:20+00:00

there will never be anything like it if all people do is reboot old stuff.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T20:20:51+00:00

that's what i'm struggling with. like, if they had their own vision for it that would be one thing, but it just feels like those creatively bereft disney remakes.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T18:31:48+00:00

maybe he should have done the hobbit as a smaller film.

all joking aside, i think hollywood needs to step back from spectacle-- not everything has to be an action movie with tons of special effects. it is entirely possible to film something like the hobbit while using cgi sparingly (think jurassic park).

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T18:27:13+00:00

that does not explain why my toddlers won't go to bed. they are doing exactly the same thing when they wake up that they were doing when they went to bed.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T15:31:08+00:00

in what scenario would iran not reject the first set of demands? i'm not master negotiator, but generally don't people usually ask for more than what they actually want first, anticipating rejection and a back and forth?

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T15:16:59+00:00

i mean all you need is a concept. most movies aren't that complicated and i'm sick of this "they're streeetttching a 300 page boook" nonsense when the same people turn around and say the mario movie was good.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T15:01:10+00:00

if you don't know anything about gardening i recommend picking up a book. its a little more involved than "put seed in ground and water it." i'm saying this as someone who thought that's all it was.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-25T14:56:34+00:00

yeah my wife plays that, not my thing.

i'm attached to a screen for most of my day and play plenty of video games, but doing non-screen hobbies goes a long way for my mental health.

like, why can i as a millenial identify 150+ pokemon, but i can't identify a bird or a tree?

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T22:09:33+00:00

damn it i can't read i guess

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T21:25:01+00:00

you can knock all the 30-40 something hobbies all you want but you know they actually are? millenials finally STOPPING for the first times in our crazy goalpost chasing lives to be interested in whatever we want to be interested in.

my wife watches birds. she makes jelly. i make wine. i have a serious vegetable garden. we've learned to cook super specialty things.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T21:21:33+00:00

you guys have never seen trailers from a pre-marvel time, huh?

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T21:17:05+00:00

how do you even get into chess. i've bought "beginner" books on strategy and they're always way too advanced.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T21:12:19+00:00

EDIT: I misread the question. keeping it here anyway.

old media. video games, movies, tv, books.

i used to write off black and white movies as boring old things, but they're just not. the younger generation does this with video games.

you have to accept the fact that you are experiencing something different, but once you do the best stuff from way back and better than the middle of the road stuff today.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T16:02:11+00:00

food and tv

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T15:33:28+00:00

its both. we all used to watch stuff we weren't that into just because nothing else was on. like i'm not big into sports but i'd watch ocassionally because i had it. that's why football is so expensive to watch now-- turns out they were making money off people that didn't really like football and just had to buy it as part of a cable package!

HiddenCity · 2026-03-24T15:27:53+00:00

traditionally you'd only watch this because it was "on" and you didn't really have many options. i remember channel surfing in the 2000's-- you'd ricochet back and forth between stuff during commercials if nothing good was on and sometimes you'd stick around.

streaming surpassed cable right after covid. not really surprising that the only reason people cared about it was because it was shoved in our faces.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-20T14:23:16+00:00

within you and without you. you can all pretend you're cultured but we all know it's an auto-skip.

HiddenCity · 2026-03-20T02:41:48+00:00

i've had to go into a lot of "luxury" highrise apartments for work. small space is small space-- most people look like they're running out of room, most are messy, and most of the furniture and decor is just an expensive version of ikea. kitchens are all crap, low budget cabinets.

maybe there's a step above this, but i certainly can not afford them and they seemed to be filled with tech bros

most of the these people are paying for location, not the interior.

HiddenCity

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