#starryteller

happy pride month or whatever rolls eyes emoji

sakanai + jianlin belong to @kaoala

The Big Bad Wolf 359

This week I reposted a bunch of posts, images and stuff revolving around the subject of "space mythology." That's because one of my WIP projects (I'm a pro writer, if a lapsed one) is about the myths, folklore and fairytales that we tell each other in a star-faring far-future setting. And everything that I repost was inspiration.

One of my early ideas: "Little Red Riding Hood" could be a great allegory for the Dark Forest Hypothesis!

The dark forest hypothesis is the idea that extraterrestrial civilizations may exist in abundance across the universe, but remain silent and hidden out of fear that revealing themselves would lead to destruction by a more technologically advanced and hostile civilization.[1] It is one of several proposed explanations of the Fermi paradox, which contrasts the apparently high probability of extraterrestrial life with the lack of evidence for it. [Wikipedia]

The Little Red Riding Hood ("Little Blue Marble?") figure is a human colony, sending a ship full of supplies to help out their homeworld ("Grandma"). The "Woods" are the dark forest of space, full of aliens hiding behind trees, fearful of making contact in case other lifeforms are hostile. And the Big Bad Wolf represents hostile alien life (or maybe something more specific, like an alien berserker probe?).

Tonight I realized that I should write a series of these: Folktale explanations for the Drake Equation, for why the universe statistically should be teeming with life — so "where is everyone?"

I'd obviously call these stories Fermi Tales. If I do them, I'll post where to find them here!

For more posts from me on this subject, follow the hashtag #starryteller