[inshadows]

Dark Forest analogy is totally misplaced. Dark Forest means that universe looks devoid of life but it's actually replete by it. The life is just careful to not reveal itself to strike first to kill and not be killed. IOW broadcasting information about Earth would be really stupid (too late, whoops!) But on Earth, US and China both know about each other, so there's no point in being "dark", they can both strike already.

I recommend Liu Cixin's trilogy Three Body Problem (third part being the Dark Forest). I listened to audiobooks.

[phonypc]

I don't think the analogy quite works anyway, but I think the "civilizations must be rivals" aspect is what was being referred to, not the "dark" part.

The Dark Forest is the second book btw.

[dutch3000]

i think he is using dark forest in the foothills to represent a new and more navigationally complex stage of a cold war, which is ultimately represented by a mountain. ie, the the entire cold war journey is as challenging and dangerous as scaling a mountain for both the countries and the world.