Re: poly: The singleton hypothesis

Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Nick B. writes:
> >It follows from the assumption that it's mainly the colonized volume
> >that determines the military strength of an advanced nanopower,
> >together with the assumption that everybody would expand at very
> >close to c.
>
> I question this first assumption. When two c-expanding waves meet,
> it seems to me that local dynamics dominate. If one side is able to
> beat the locals and penetrate the other at near speed c,

I question the notion of a "very close to c" colonization (as opposed
to relativistic bombing) expansion, which I've seen mentioned before
on a couple lists.
I'm not aware of any feasible means to decelerate a pioneer mission
from, say, .99c in a reasonable time and distance (less than 1000 ly).
The average speed of a trip <v> has to include this phase. The best <v>
that can be acheived without invoking the tooth fairy is closer
to .5c for missions within the Milky Way.

Forrest

-- 
Forrest Bishop
Manager,
Interworld Productions, LLC
Chairman,
Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering
http://www.speakeasy.org/~forrestb