Re: poly: Malign Probes and expanding civilizations

From: Damien R. Sullivan <phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu>
Date: Sun Dec 21 1997 - 17:23:41 PST

On Dec 21, 8:10pm, "Perry E. Metzger" wrote:
> "Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko" writes:
> > It seems that most scenarios for the civilizations' expansion assume that
> > their power and spread will be shaped more by their spacial expansion than
> > growth in complexity, power over the laws of physics, ability to create more
> > space/time where they are, etc.
 
> it. Some of us will go into space, and some will stay, perhaps even
> unchanged for millennia while the rest of us become unrecognizable.

Indeed. I've predicted that ASCII and Amish will be around a million
years from now. If Earth stays civilized, and if the Amish can maintain
their numbers internally, what's going to happen to them?

(Well, an ice age, actually, and civilization might rudely dismantle
the planet, so I only seriously predict that ASCII will be
understandable a million years from now.)

To address Sasha's question: the discussion was sparked by Carl's "ESS
for HPLD": the assumption that there will be a Highest Possible Level of
Development. No more control over the laws of physics, no creation (of
energy or space-time.) More complexity, possibly, but that's not
guaranteed to be a winner, especially against Really Big Sticks. Right
now we're better off exponentially growing in place than in space, but
one can assume that local development will level off and that it'll be
time to resume extension, and discuss the consequences.

Not very Singularitarian, perhaps. Oh well. Tsk tsk.

-xx- GOU Learning From Others' Mistakes X-)

Natural selection, the blind idiot suzerain of evolution.
Received on Mon Dec 22 01:15:52 1997

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