Regarding whether more advanced civilizations “don’t care to help”… I’m not sure if I would frame my argument that way. I would rather say that it seems plausible that much more advanced civilizations might have divergent goal structures or priorities. It’s also entirely possible that their temporal experience of reality is very different if they have gone digital. So it’s less about being selfish and more about a lack of practicality for making contact. I tried to cover this point to a detailed degree in the post.
It also seems plausible to me that significantly more advanced civilizations might rationally conclude there is very little upside for them to contact less sophisticated societies and at least some potential downside. Not really dark forest theory, but more like a good Bayesian approach to risk management.
I’d also point out that the hypotheses out there offered as solutions to the FP are not mutually exclusive. It could be that intelligent civilizations are fairly rare, that quite a few self-destruct, and that quite a few just evolve quickly through a detection window. Reality is often messier than our theories.
Thanks for the feedback!
Regarding whether more advanced civilizations “don’t care to help”… I’m not sure if I would frame my argument that way. I would rather say that it seems plausible that much more advanced civilizations might have divergent goal structures or priorities. It’s also entirely possible that their temporal experience of reality is very different if they have gone digital. So it’s less about being selfish and more about a lack of practicality for making contact. I tried to cover this point to a detailed degree in the post.
It also seems plausible to me that significantly more advanced civilizations might rationally conclude there is very little upside for them to contact less sophisticated societies and at least some potential downside. Not really dark forest theory, but more like a good Bayesian approach to risk management.
I’d also point out that the hypotheses out there offered as solutions to the FP are not mutually exclusive. It could be that intelligent civilizations are fairly rare, that quite a few self-destruct, and that quite a few just evolve quickly through a detection window. Reality is often messier than our theories.