Karim Jebari in National Geographic: The Dark Forest theory

The Fermi paradox, the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations' existence and the lack of evidence or contact with such civilizations, has been re-actualized with the recent TV series adaptation of the 2008 novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. The sequel, The Dark Forest, has given name to the Dark Forest hypothesis, which posits that alien societies wouold see other intelligent life forms as unavoidable threats and thus annihilate any emerging life that discloses its existence — a possible explanation for the Fermi paradox.

Karim Jebari was recently interviewed in National Geographic about the Dark Forest hypothesis.

“If there are so many civilizations, and some of them could destroy us, then we have to explain how that has not happened. Maybe there’s a Galactic Empire that keeps the hostilities down, or maybe it's really difficult to attack each other over interstellar distances.”

The Dark Forest hypothesis was the subject of a recent article in the Monist by Karim Jebari and Andrea Asker.