Philosopher Tony Milligan from the Royal College of London expressed doubts about the plausibility of the dark forest hypothesis, which claims that aliens prefer to remain hidden due to fear of potential threats from other civilizations.
The author of the dark forest hypothesis is the Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin. Using this hypothesis, he explained the so-called Fermi paradox, which asks: why have humans not yet found any signs of extraterrestrial civilizations? According to this concept, aliens try not to reveal their presence due to the danger posed by other civilizations. Here, the universe is likened to a forest, where each inhabitant strives to hide from the others to survive.
In Milligan’s opinion, this hypothesis is flawed. He noted that it is based on the idea of survival of the fittest, which is one of the foundations of Darwinian evolution. However, there has been no evidence so far that the behavior of aliens is determined solely by competition with other civilizations.
In forest ecosystems, interactions between organisms may be linked to aggression, but in many cases, species evolve together through coevolution, allowing them to mutually benefit from cooperation, Milligan concluded.