Could it be that the reason we are confronted by the “Great Silence” is that advanced civilizations are being wiped out? This is the essence of the Berserker Hypothesis, inspired by science fiction, but rooted in scientific theory. It combines the concept of von Neuman Probes, nanotechnology, and the idea that the greatest threat to advanced life is itself!
- Tagged
- aliens
- berserker probes
- extraterrestrial intelligence
- John von Neumann
- science fiction
- von neumann probes
storiesbywilliams
Matt Williams is a professional writer, science fiction author, and science communicator who currently writes for Universe Today, Interesting Engineering, Stardom Space, and Stellar Amenities. He is also the Director of Media Communications for Mars City Design and a member of Enterprise in Space and Explore Mars. His novels, The Formist Series, are available at Amazon.com and through Castrum Press. He lives with his wife and family on Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia.
Stories by Williams 
I love how you talk about these things. If some machine based species is wiping out advanced civilisations it’s probably a good thing, on balance. For all the non advanced species, such as marsupial rats, that advanced civilisations tend to bulldoze.
Hey, it’s been a while! How are you? And thanks for listening! You raised an important point about this, which is the possibility that berserker probes could be great preservationists. By taking down species that could become expansionist and keep other life forms from developing, they could be doing less-advanced species (like ourselves) a favor.