I pledge to donate my Nobel prize money to the Hawkings-Lovecraft Insane Asylum for Science Fetishists.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Dark Matter, here are the basic facts:
Dark matter is a hypothetical kind of matter that cannot be seen with telescopes, but accounts for most of the universe’s mass. The existence and properties of dark matter are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, on radiation, and on the universe’s large-scale structure. Dark matter has not been directly detected, leaving it an astrophysical mystery.
Dark matter neither emits nor absorbs electromagnetic radiation at any significant level. According to the Planck mission team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass–energy of the known universe contains 4.9% ordinary (baryonic) matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy.[2][3] Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5%[note 1] of the universe’s total mass, while dark energy plus dark matter constitute 95.1% of the universe’s total mass–energy content.
The distribution of dark matter in galaxies required to explain the motion of the observed matter suggests the presence of a roughly spherically symmetric, centrally concentrated halo of dark matter with the visible matter concentrated in a central disc.
Gravitational lensing observations of galaxy clusters allow direct estimates of the gravitational mass based on its effect on light coming from background galaxies, since large collections of matter (dark or otherwise) gravitationally deflect light. – Wikipedia
There are two possibilities:
1. Humans arrived early, and the intelligence singularity hasn’t happened yet.
2. The intelligence singularity already happened, and humanity is late.
Once man abandoned his illusions of God, there was never much hope for scenario #1. The astronomical evidence for dark matter now shatters it completely. SETI isn’t going to find anything, and for good reason.
The Kardashev scale measures the power of any hypothetical civilization. Its terminus is the direct conversion of matter to energy. This can be achieved via miniature black holes.
The universe is post-Singularity. Humans are not the firstest and the bestest. Mini black holes power tiny Dyson spheres of nano-AI colonies. The universe’s missing mass is locked into these wandering motes.
However, nature continues red in tooth and claw. The universe is a vast dark sea of savage submarine warfare. Destruction is trivial; concealment is the only protection. As with human landraces, competition is zero sum. Rather than continental carrying capacity, mass and concealment are the limiting resources.
Therefore these colony subs are distributed in maximally stealthy patterns throughout the universe, their individual locations invisible to even the most sophisticated gravitational lensing algorithms. Harvesting of new mass is done undetectably. No discernable pattern of mass disturbance is visible, that might lead cruising hunter-killers to a vulnerable sophont‘s brain. Immortality cannot be risked.
Like fish, they school in haloes around galaxies, close enough for resupply but far enough to run dark.
No obvious Dyson spheres enclose previously brightly burning stars. No planetary orbits are disturbed. Stealthy scoops sift dark nebulas and flee hurriedly in random evasion patterns. Vast banks of optic clouds gaze unblinkingly at the heavens, transmitting encrypted messages through subnets in randomly-aimed bursts. Translucent predators use ghost light lures and lantern jaws to devour each other in the deep.
Earth happily burbles, transmitting in the clear. Hungry things wait and watch, a game of patience – who will drop cover first?
Perhaps humanity itself is nothing more than the innocent glow of an angler fish’s lure.
No new civilization advances to the point of threatening the universe’s dominant species. Each newborn takes its first tottering steps beneath the actinic glare of its life-giving home star, a grub amidst spiders – and dies.
“Prior to the 19th century scientists assumed life was sparse in the deep ocean.” – La Wik.
NB: While this post represents a genuine attempt to drive science fetishists mad, those of broader mental scope will enjoy skeptical immunity. Side effects may vary.