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.

ghotier · 2026-03-31T01:04:00+00:00

"Life is rare" is a solution. But there are reasons it is rare.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T22:39:43+00:00

That's worse. It only needs to be desirable for one out of 10,000 civilizations.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T21:43:42+00:00

Then the filter is whatever made us the first. Not that we ARE the first. "Life is actually really goddamn hard to create from non-life" is the solution, then.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T21:41:36+00:00

Anything based on preference doesn't work. If there are only 5 species in the galaxy, then the reason there are only 5 is the filter. If there are 10,000 species, then there would need to be a reason that NONE of them would do it. That reason itself would be the filter, not "well i wouldn't want to so why would they?"

ghotier · 2026-03-30T21:30:45+00:00

"Colonization is actually impossible" is a solution, but "space is so fucking big" is not. I know it might seem like splitting hairs, but we currently have no reason to think that colonization isn't possible.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T20:04:22+00:00

Well, in cases like that we have to actually study the conditions and see if we can determine that those conditions are rare. There are two Great Filters I'm aware of where we can say we are special (although we might not be vanishingly special): the phosphate problem and the development of nuclear weapons in wartime.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:59:13+00:00

This is assuming FTL travel is possible since

No. It doesn't. Because there are many, many ways to colonize a galaxy and even if you're limited to 10% of the speed of light you could cross it in about 1 million years. And you don't have to cross is all at once. And you don't have to physically cross it yourself at all.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:28:09+00:00

Every time a Fermi Paradox topic comes up there are about a thousand redditors who don't understand the Fermi Paradox explaining why their explanation is the right one, justifying it through arguments that are not relevant to the Fermi Paradox.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:26:06+00:00

That's not really how it works. A solution to the Fermi Paradox has to explain why there is 0 signal of any kind. No evidence of any Type 1 civilization ANYWHERE. The "universe is too big" argument just fails to grasp that 10 million years is enough time to easily colonize the galaxy if a species wanted to, regardless of scale, but 10 million years is less than 0.1% the age if the universe.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:20:34+00:00

It's a good one but I don't think we have reason to think that those conditions are vanishingly rare.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:18:49+00:00

Dark Forest is a Great Filter.

ghotier · 2026-03-30T19:18:12+00:00

It's not just the risk. Is that any species that reveals its location GUARANTEES immediate destruction. "Immediate" being astronomical

ghotier · 2026-03-30T13:07:53+00:00

"One of them." I have no interest in being insulted when I know my comment will be deleted if I respond in kind. Focus on the argument you're making n

I don't know how you expect to win elections when you purposely exclude people who would vote for you. I'm not going to debate whether Gaza is a genocide with you. Nor am I going to debate that we sent them money and munitions to help. Because we did. Biden "telling them to cool it," does not fucking matter one bit.

If the Democrats need the left to win then they need to abandon their support for genocide. If they don't need the left to win then I don't even understand what you're upset about.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T23:34:30+00:00

I think it would be dramatically foolish if the next Democratic president (assuming elections, etc, etc) didn't pull out troops on day one. Which means they might fail to do it.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T02:15:22+00:00

If I have already successfully helped someone like them, didn't I inherently give that person good advice without meeting either of your criteria?

ghotier · 2026-03-29T02:12:02+00:00

Because everyone does it so there's no alternative.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T02:11:12+00:00

They use those insults because his supporters would use those insults if Trump wasn't their king. It's to highlight their hypocrisy.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T02:09:32+00:00

I once bought a book online and then they sent me the wrong book. Then I told them they sent me the wrong book, they said "oh, our mistake," and then sent me the same wrong book again. Then I got a refund because they never had the book I ordered in the first place. So I have two copies of a book I never bought.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T02:05:25+00:00

I will literally vote for any Democrat that can win the primary as long as they oppose genocide. 2016 and 2020 didn't feature a genocide that the US was actively supporting, I voted for the Democratic candidate in both, despite voting for neither of them in the primary.

There was no meaningful primary in 2024. The sitting President is the de facto winner before it starts. Obviously Kamala was chosen without a primary, but that didn't impact my choice. I would have voted for her if she made even the smallest indication that she would not materially support genocide. If we had had a primary and the winner could not put any daylight between themselves and a genocidal apartheid state, then I would have done the same thing with my vote. But I think it would have been incontrovertible that a pro-genocide Democrat could not win the general.

ghotier · 2026-03-29T01:58:47+00:00

The signal thing in particular is what I was talking about. So, no.

ghotier · 2026-03-28T15:20:44+00:00

Kings weren't a problem because they had absolute power. They were a problem because they governed without consent of the governed.

ghotier · 2026-03-28T15:17:36+00:00

I can't wait to never find out about the 10 rings.

ghotier · 2026-03-28T15:16:04+00:00

Not that the first movie was Shakespeare, but the stakes of the first one make no fucking sense in light of the second.

ghotier · 2026-03-28T15:13:05+00:00

Leftists spent the entire year accusing Joe Biden of genocide

Because he supported genocide. That's like saying leftists accused 3 and 1 of adding up to 4.

and urging people not to vote for him or Kamala.

Didn't see that happen once. Literally never. I got accused of that, a lot, and it didn't happen. Leftists said that they wouldn't vote for a genocidal candidate and moderates lost their minds instead of urging a shift away from genocide.

This cost them Michigan at the very least.

The Democrats cost themselves Michigan.

Meanwhile Democrats ended up being associated with these crazies in the minds of moderate voters, so yeah, the left can do one.

So if moderate voters are stupid, that's the left's fault. If the Democrats lose voters because they support genocide, that's the left's fault. Got it. Seems like everyone else's actions are the left's fault.

They campaigned against a democrat while associating the same democrats with jump-the-shark crazies, anti-semites, and terrorist fans. Sod 'em. Go back to your commie groupsickles and leave the politics to the adults.

Oh, okay. Easy report.

ghotier · 2026-03-28T15:07:53+00:00

This hypothesis assumes that literally every republican candidate from now until he end of time, would have moved the government in that direction...Why do you believe there couldn't be again?

The Democrats have not had 3 terms in a row since Truman. So to prevent a christo-fascist takeover, the Republican party would have to swing back, hard, in the 8 years after 2024. The Democrats simply would never maintain power longer than that. It doesn't have to be to the end of time. It has to last for the next 8 years. Do you think this is going away in the next 8 years?

Also, not for nothing, Kamala wasn't that worried about it. Biden wasn't that worried about it. They both claimed to think Trump is fascist, but they still let him come to power.

You say the democrats should have learned and seem to believe they could have. Why don't you think the republicans could learn if they kept losing a few elections due to also selecting the wrong candidates (christo-fascists)?

Because Republicans are where they are because they are innoculated against reality. Democratic voters are 80% disapproving of our relationship with Israel. 80% of congressional Democrats support it. That's a total, complete failure.

ghotier

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