Stephen Hawking's eerie alien theory might explain why we've never been contacted

Story by Jake Brigstock •

Indy 100
Stephen Hawking Said It Would Destroy Us... But Scientists Are Doing It 

Duration 8:42 View on Watch

A  theory as to why we haven't heard from aliens which renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking agreed with has resurfaced online.

Planet Earth is about the size of a speck of dust when compared to the whole universe and the likelihood of there being other intelligent life out there is pretty high, even though it's a scary thought, right?

Scientists and experts have a number of theories as to why that is but a particular one that Stephen Hawking agreed with has come up again online, getting a lot of people talking.

Actor and author Kalpana Pot posted a TikTok video on her account summing up the theory.

In the video, she says: "Take a look at our Milky Way galaxy. Some estimates say it has 400 billion stars and possibly trillions of planets.

"Even if a tiny fraction of those planets have intelligent life, that's still a big number - small amounts in space terms is still a lot.

"We've been scanning the skies for signals for over 60 years but it's been radio silent, so to speak.

"We've been sending out our own signals intentionally and unintentionally for over a century yet no responses and that's where the paradox comes in.

"So again, in such a vast universe and galaxy, where the f**k is everyone?"





Kalpana goes on to share what she describes as the 'darkest' theory out there.

"There are lots of answers, well, opinions to this question but there's one that stands out as the darkest and that's the 'dark forest hypothesis'," she says.

"It states that there probably is a lot of intelligent life but they know to stay silent.

"They could be too afraid to send signals for fear of being discovered because maybe there's a d*******g alien civilisation out there that will completely eliminate you.

"When you look at all life on Earth, at our core, we're just trying to survive and will eliminate any threat we perceive.

"This could be true for all life out there and if that's the case and we've sent a lot of signals, we might have f****d ourselves.

"This hypothesis could also be projecting, we don't know, but it is one that Stephen Hawking agreed with."

A number of users commented on the video.

Wayne Luke said: "Space is also very vast... Trillions could be screaming into the void and we may never hear them."

Baugnasty said: "The dark forest theory is kind of unsettling."

Carl_Nelsnow said: "Isn't it more likely that the civilizations are too far apart from each other to ever communicate or travel between?"


Tiny goat said: "Life is everywhere in the universe! Everyone is just so far apart and cannot communicate!"

Hers said: "If we only been sending signals for 100 years... They probably haven't traveled far enough."