Flush it Friday: Fermi & Me
Aliens are everywhere in metal—from purple tech to “Hangar 18,” our fear of extraterrestrial beings has been a wellspring of inspiration for the genre. The inconceivable scale of the universe, and the horrors we can imagine within it, keep artists like Par Olofsson fed and death metal fans saying “he’ll ye, xenos!” But why does it seem like such a ghost town out there?
Most of you will be familiar with the Fermi paradox, the contradiction between the supposed high probability of life beyond Earth and the lack of conclusive evidence of its existence. There are a number of theories to explain the paradox, two of which are most interesting to me. The Dark Forest hypothesis (which takes its name from a Cixin Liu novel) is the idea that the universe is full of sentient life, but everyone is hiding from the other “hunters” in the forest. In this theory, first contact is itself an existential threat to both parties; belligerence or benevolence cannot be inferred without contact, so the safest bet to ensure the continuation of one’s own species is to obliterate first, and ask questions probably never. If the universe is a dark forest, we might be Areciboned already.
Another theory, posited in 1966 by Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky, is that technological civilizations will inevitably self-destruct within ~100 years of developing spaceflight. Be it climate catastrophe, nuclear war, or a superbug, tinkering with technology is, in this theory, a terminal time bomb. Cheerful stuff! Let’s get back to that fun shid.
Stick did the Stick thing! Spear did the Roldy thing that used to be the Spear thing!
Toilet Radio talked all things NEMHF with organizer Scott Lee:
365 Days of Horror spewed blasphemy the brutal death way with this Hellish God premiere:
Gage weighed the new Nile rekkid against their own heart and found entrance to the burning pits of the Duat:
What do you think is the solution to the Fermi paradox? Had any spooky alien sightings? Let us know along with your G/B/UFOs in the comments! ~<3 Roldy
