Re: poly: The singleton hypothesis

From: Nick Bostrom <bostrom@ndirect.co.uk>
Date: Mon May 04 1998 - 20:34:51 PDT

Robin Hanson wrote:

> What if a war with aliens were like a game of Go, where subtle strategy
> choices could make a big difference? Does analysis of a game like Go also
> reach limits, where more analysis won't give more ability?

I think the most computationally demanding battle decisions would be
ones one a small scale. Then, even if it is not feasible to come up
with an optimal strategy, what would determine the outcome at a
particular battle scene might not be the general level of
technological development (as long as it's above a certain very high
level) but rather how much computing power the combatants have
available at the scene.

_____________________________________________________
Nick Bostrom
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb
Received on Tue May 5 02:42:00 1998

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Mar 07 2006 - 14:45:30 PST