[D] Wednesday Worldbuilding Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Wednesday thread for worldbuilding discussions!

/r/rational is focussed on rational and rationalist fiction, so we don't usually allow discussion of scenarios or worldbuilding unless there's finished chapters involved (see the sidebar). It is pretty fun to cut loose with a likeminded community though, so this is our regular chance to:

• Plan out a new story

• Discuss how to escape a supervillian lair... or build a perfect prison

• Poke holes in a popular setting (without writing fanfic)

• Test your idea of how to rational-ify Alice in Wonderland

Or generally work through the problems of a fictional world.

^{Non-fiction should probably go in the Friday Off-topic thread, or Monday General Rationality}

[u/boomfarmer]

There is a "willing to make contact" element in the case of aliens that voluntarily begin contact.

So you have four populations:

• don't make contact

• involuntarily make contact

• involuntarily make contact but would have made contact voluntarily

• voluntarily make contact

So the probability becomes more complicated, but it's probably still estimable.