[trutannus]

Whenever I hear about putting beacons in space I'm always reminded of the plot of the book The Dark Forest. I remember too about a decade ago that it was decided the idea of broadcasting our location in deep space might be a bad idea.

[Balgair]

The Three Body Problem trilogy also leans heavily into that theme.

It's a good series at first, but gets very woo-woo by the end.

Spoilers:

All aliens are actively hostile to others. Any civilizations they find, they destroy.

[lgl]

Again, spoiler alert:

The books don't really specify that *all* civilizations are actively hostile to each other but hints that the best chance for survival is basically being quiet since there are unknown civilizations that yield tremendous power and are in fact actively hostile to any signs of other intelligent life which they can destroy with relative and terrifying ease. It's that sort of status-quo that makes the dark forest theory so scary and why everybody that eventually reaches that conclusion would want to remain hidden and/or silent. Throughout the story we only ever get to see from the point of view of two civilizations so who knows if there wasn't something like a star-trekian federation at some place or time since we do eventually get to know that there were many many civilizations in the end.

It does get really crazy, but I personally found the whole trilogy really awesome. It would be hard to build such a story relying only on our current understanding of physics and technology and even some of the crazier parts are still kind of based out of real theories and hypothetical developments or discoveries.

I still highly recommend this trilogy to any sci-fi/first contact fan.

[bostik]

I had an even darker interpretation.

Because there is a non-zero probability that some civilizations are, or will become, hostile predators, the most effective survival strategy is to:

1) avoid detection at all costs, and

2) exterminate any civilisation you detect before they can invite the attention of these predators, or worse, evolve into one; meaning

3) become the predator

[hoseja]

See also: history, evolution of the state. The system we live in has self-preservation as it's main interest and it's absolutely terrified of dying.

[elefanten]

The Dark Forest is book 2 of Three Body Trilogy

[Balgair]

Crumbs! Not enough coffee this morning, sorry!

[piyh]

The Dark Forest is the sequel to the Three Body Problem which is part of the trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Path

[cdelsolar]

I thought Death's End was incredible myself, although The Dark Forest just edges it out.

[squarefoot]

A book that could reinforce this idea is "Those Gentle Voices" by Gorge Alec Effinger.