But how do you know space isn't filled with a network of probes to detect just that? It seems to me you need to be confident you're first on the scene, or at least that the Precursors don't have such a huge lead on you that your diversions are useless.

Edit: Also it seems that by a strange argument combining 1) any civilization earlier than you is likely to be massively more technologically advanced and you cannot hide and 2) you exist, that any civilization could assume they are either first or first enough, which also seems to break the dark forest.

I said posting the link, not mentioning the title. The "theory" is named after the book. The wikipedia article was added in October 2022 and is mostly just modeled after Cixin Liu's use of the theory. From one of the citations:

>This particular proposed resolution to Fermi’s Paradox question is a very recent addition. It takes its name from the novel The Dark Forest by famed Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin.

So the title of a book wasn't a spoiler for itself.

Dark forest being a trope in other books is irrelevant to it being a huge spoiler for the series if you read the wikipedia which definitely will make the experience of reading it less enjoyable.

That's like saying murder is in a lot of books so it's not a big deal to spoil a book with a pivotal murder in its plot. Have you read the books? Because I would think the importance would be obvious if you had.