I imagine most here are familiar with the Dark Forest Hypothesis, which is a repetition of The Fermi Paradox by Enrico Fermi (mentioned casually) in 1950, resurfacing as a response to the Drake Equation from 1961. This is an equation which summarizes the concept of contemplation for the possibility of other radio-communicative life. Not their speculative abilities, just whether they have a similar means of contact.
Why might this be important? Much of the discussion of the Dark Forest Hypothesis primarily pertains to the quantifiable physical aspect of reality in concept -- discussions which do not necessarily engage emotional and mental aspects which overshadow the ‘first forest’. Why would there only be one forest, when there could be multiple, which we ourselves are currently engaged with among each other?
Though those might be considered the ‘principal forests’, these also may be represented physically, such as by size difference and by physical capabilities. Physical capabilities which may be rendered meaningless if another can control and command those physical capabilities without the physical entity ever being aware of it through the machinations of the mind. This is meant to express that there’s more than one forest, and it may seem that the means of crossing those forest may be in the emotional one, as physical elements constitute the mind, and so is the perception given by the mind required to recognize anything which represents the physical.
This may help to address what is commonly regarded as the ‘spiritual’ aspect by engaging everything that’s considered emotional, connecting both the physical with the mental. This is because the mind has the ability to articulate concepts in relation to what’s physical and emotional, which is demonstrated through disciplines like psychology which integrate both, with the mind still demonstrated to be dependent upon a physical in order to exist in relation to our reality. What can anyone see without a means to do so in relation to something else (like the reflection of light upon an object in relation to the eyes for the brain to process), other than nothing, as there would be no means to do so, or relation to measure those means to recognize anything exists at all?
However, imagine the discrepancy represented between the two extremes of those forests. That an entity might be capable of everything physical, even like what’s represented in comic books. What level of distrust might such an entity have towards another which possesses no physical ability, but can potentially control every aspect of that physical ability because it can control the mind which dictates that physical ability? Who then would be scared of who? Perhaps then they may have concern for the capabilities of one another.
As an illustration, imagine you may be like Super Man (I hate the cliché), but know of another entity which could have controlled everything you have ever thought, believed, or known, since before you were ever born, or even rewritten such in your own mind without your knowledge at any time or instance, where the entire reality of your life could be potentially manufactured just by the exercise of another’s capabilities? How would any physical ability compare to that? Imagine how this ‘super-hero’ might feel if they don’t even know if who they are is who they are simply by the knowledge of whether or not an entity of the mind might exist? Which then would be considered to be the deeper forest?
Even if there existed a race which could physically destroy entire solar systems with a single person, the latter in many ways may be potentially much more frightening, as they may have only ever have existed as the extension of another’s will without ever knowing so. Do people imagine this to be so easy to conceptualize? An additional illustration of conceptualization:
Overconfidence might say – “no problem”. They then may go and challenge the idea where someone’s physically fifteen miles tall, no known weapon can affect them, not knowing who they are, where an accidental breath might mutilate you permanently until you suffer to death for 50 years, and accomplish nothing meaningful due to physical disability. Other way around, let someone who’s fifteen miles tall go into the mind of ant with 15 million dimensions of consciousness, where to break a bone is to do so 15 million consecutive times, with sensitivities in relation to that ant which they never felt before, or could ever even conceptualize due to their physical capabilities.
Now which forest is scarier?
What about other ‘forests’, such as between land and water? Mammal to amphibian? Slow and fast. Young and Old. Emotional and objective. Advanced and primitive. Male and female. Possible and impossible. There are many forests to cross, aren’t there? Yet people won’t even believe in the possible elements of reality that are right here already on Earth, described for them through the sciences, or through mathematics (which we now know through historical revisions of theories have also change upon a new discoveries and mathematical proofs).
So, if you don’t at least believe in your own logical limitations, what do you believe in? And how can someone cross all of the forests if they can’t even cross the first, such as disbelieving what you already believe to be true in terms of what Humans are capable of? Many turn a blind eye just to the idea that organized crime exists today, in denial that such a thing would be the exact objective for those who participate in such activities in order to not get caught by accomplishing the objective of never falling under suspicion in the first place. Now we want to believe in Aliens, an idea potentially much more farfetched, when we won’t even believe in what Humanity is capable of (which has already been proven throughout history, as well as today, through forensic evidence)? Does this seem rational?
Food for thought. It doesn’t seem rational (to me) to believe in magic first in favor of mathematics which conceptualize and make that magic possible in the first place. This is why I think if we remove the woo (profiteers and con-artists) and the lies, then you’ll have disclosure. Keep believing in contradictions, then your mind is too screwed up to believe in anything other than your own contradictions, as a person in such a state by default believe in themselves (their contradictions) over the reality they exist in.
