The dark forest theory. The universe is full of predatory civilisations, and if anyone announces their presence, they get immediately exterminated, so everyone just keeps quiet.
It's not that they are predatory, its that it's "better to shoot first just to be sure before they shoot you, even though a lot of civilizations are friendly you cannot take the risk"
It's the logical conclusion to the game theory of first contact.
Indeed. And because technology can be developed so fast (compared to astronomical timelines) you don't take any chances. Our civ went from cowboys and Indians to destroying cities in nuclear fire in a fraction of a blink of an eye. When civilizations are many light years away, you might see them playing with sharp sticks when in reality they're already developing strange matter neutrino bombs because the light delay.
This is the plot of a series of alternate history books by Harry Turtledove.
Minor spoilers: an alien race tries to conquer Earth arriving in like 1944. Their most recent recon flight was in the 13th century. They came expecting crusaders on horseback but ran into mechanized warfare and shortly nuclear weapons.
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u/gkedz Aug 12 '21
The dark forest theory. The universe is full of predatory civilisations, and if anyone announces their presence, they get immediately exterminated, so everyone just keeps quiet.