Weekly "what are you reading" Thread #76

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms

@Turkeyvann can you :marseypin2: pls?

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The Dark Forest (sequel to The Three Body Problem).

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Thoughts on the dark forest concept? (As a sci-fi plot device)

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It's not that novel is it? I don't read sci-fi in general but it seems like a simple whack-a-mole situation, any civilization that drags attention to itself is bound to be smacked down by a superior one noticing it

https://media.tenor.com/zlGIDr_LfjgAAAAx/whack-a-mole-cute.webp

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The concept is fun to think about but highly unrealistic. All of our radio transmissions can be caught up in space as long as they're close enough (after dozens of several light years they'll become indescifrable noise). The only way to hide is by having zero transmissions.

I don't know why the aliens would feel such a strong genocide urge because of a random civilization light years away either.

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I don't find it that unrealistic in the sense of "why not"? Might as well eliminate them before they can manage to become a threat.

I don't feel bad for killing an insect, I don't think I'd care if we could vaporize a trillion aliens either.

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The transmissions that attract attention in the book propagate further than that.

The genocidal behaviour doesn't seem that implausible considering both wildly differing alien psychologies and the uncertainty that would bring to all sides predicting each other. Plus imagine the genocide option happens even once and others see it. Going dark and wiping others out becomes more attractive.

Anyways I'm on the third book, looks like other civilizations will get some attention.

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The "dark forest" explanation to Fermi's paradox came up pretty soon after Fermi posed it, if I recall correctly.

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I think it's used here to fantastic effect. Meshes well with the themes and setting of the first two books, that is massive power disparity, realpolitik, and extreme measures due to desperation.

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