Sometimes, the Universe seems like a dark forest. Silent, gloomy, and seeming dead. But hunters lurk in the shadows and they are deadly serious. And when two hunters meet only one survives. That’s one of the darkest solutions for the Fermi Paradox that describes the Universe as full of fear.
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War 1 + 1 = 0
Peace 1 + 1 = 2
win-win 1 + 1 = 4 (or more)
The thought that universe is filled with war, or warring planets, etc
is patently stupid.
It is only thinkable by a race of people who hasn't solved the problem of making enough for everybody.
And one that still sees everything in a win-lose mentality.
Further, science will finally accept the fact that the fleshie part of the body is only a small proportion of the body. And that people who live in the space station aren't losing body due to lack of gravity and muscle building, but because they have left earth, which they are a part of.
After that, science will realize that the notion of taking over a planet, even a supposed barren one, is not at all easy. Terriforming is the smallest of the tasks to be done.
Lastly, aliens have been visiting earth since the start.
Many advanced civilization on earth had open contact with aliens.
That we are here, thinking we are advanced, wondering if aliens actually exist
is quite humorous.
There are probably hostile civilizations out there, but if humans are any indication, there are also friendly and funny ones too. I'm beginning to lean towards the most obvious solution to the Fermi paradox: viruses. Viruses can quickly wipe out a civilization, just look at what this relatively weak coronavirus has done to humanity. There is more where that came from. If a local virus doesn't wipe out civilizations in a planet, then an alien virus could. So making contact makes no sense at all. It's best to keep each other at a distance.
We don't really understand viruses that well. Viruses appear to have many tricks up their sleeves, including air transmission. Earth is full of viruses (thousands upon thousands), many of which we do not yet understand or even know exist. We could certainly develop (consciously or accidently) a bio-weapon that changes how they behave too. If we ever meet a civilization, we're not just going to say "hello" and then go our separate ways. We're going to come in close contact with them, their animals, and technology. This close contact increases the chance of cross-contamination. The chances are very high that they could introduce a virus into our ecosystem or we could introduce a virus into theirs. An alien virus is perhaps the biggest threat we face from a non-hostile alien civilization.
You bring a good point. If we stay apart, then the chances are small because of the distances involved. But let's consider the following scenario. An alien civilization uses FRBs to communicate with us across a vast distance. They teach us how to create an "FRB 3D printer," so we can share information. A malicious civilization could use this FRB 3D printer to send a virus across vast distances without having to set foot here. This would be a good way to transform our planet and invade it at a later date.
There is no guarantee that alien intelligence is similar to ours, so there's no telling what they would do. But let's use human intelligence as an example. Humans are very adventurous and wreckless. For example, we know that there could be dangerous viruses on Mars (if there's life), and yet we're only a few years away from going there in spite of this danger. We'll be digging around in no time. Closer to home, we know that bats and other creatures carry viruses, and we're still poking around in caves. We also know that there could be viruses in frozen lakes in the arctic, and we continue to dig up and bring up life from its icy depths. So, in spite of the danger, we continue exploring and touching other life-forms. A sufficiently advanced civilization may also decide to come poke around on Earth for research purposes.
We are already capable of creating organisms using synthetic DNA. In a few decades, this will be routine. So, a sufficiently advanced civilization (several hundred, thousands, or millions of years ahead of us) could do it fairly easily. We now know that FRBs are capable of carrying more complex information, so if we use them to communicate, we could send complex instructions to each other. You're right that they might not understand our nervous system, but if we share that information then it will be easy. Because of our social nature, humans like to share too much information. Here's exhibit A:
We even put our home address!
I've never heard this one, but I like t he creativity.
My view on the Fermi paradox is societies get so advanced they all succumb to their own inventions and destroy themselves before being capable of building generational space ships that can explore the galaxy.
I doubt the Dark Forest hypothesis. If alien species exist, and if they are anything like humanity, they would probably need to form an advanced voluntary society to escape the kind of political and corporate bullshit holding us back now.
Maybe not looking at this in a human perspective, but how it works in the animal world. Most small creatures live their lives and try to avoid the large predators. Some creatures have adapted to keep the predators at bay. Then, on the predator level, there is only one Alpha for an area.
That's probably more of how space would be, if there wasn't a great eraser out there making sure that no civilization gets to a certain point.
Counterpoint 1: porcupines, skunks, and other critters predators leave alone.
Counterpoint 2: Humans are part of nature. We are re-learning conservation and coexistence with nature. We can use without exploiting, and generally coexist with other species.
Counterpoint to my own counterpoint: we also farm livestock, and slavery is a major part of global human history.
C1 : I mentioned that some creatures have adapted a way to keep larger predators at bay.
C2: We are the Apex Predator. Some people are alphas, some are betas. But, even looking at humans as part of the animal kingdom, we still fit in the same way as others. There are some predators we stay away from and some smaller possible prey we do not eat.
And hence, most likely we will be a delicious meal for the invading alien force.
"To serve man. It's a cookbook!"
What if the estimates for evolutionary probability are wrong, and we ARE the only sentient species that has existed, does exist, and will ever exist? Is that scarier, or more comforting? On the one hand, no doom from beyond the stars to destroy us. On the other, no technologically advanced aid or trade will ever come from outside.