Re: poly: ESS for HPLD

In a message dated 12/4/97 1:17:33 PM, carlf@atg.com wrote:

I agree with most of Carl's analysis of the final state of the universe
being a race to colonize the small clumps of usable stuff. But:

>"What is behind me no longer matters!" Any effort,
>up to and including the total destruction of the oasis, would be justified
>if it slightly increased the average speed. The HPLD would propagate
>across the universe as an unstoppable wildfire, moving close to the speed
>of light, transforming everything in its path into cinders and derelict
>machinery.

That's only a rational strategy if you have a meaningful chance of
outracing all other and colonizing the entirety of a wedge of the universe.
Two groups which race each other forever leaving a trail of cinders
obviously do worse than one which stops eventually - at least that
group gets something. Another point is that once the frontier is
nearly a plane this hypothetical races is just giving up one oasis for
another. With your 10%/year mortality rate shooting for stars that
got missed in the first wave could be a sensible strategy.

Basically, I doubt that the groups would ash out their oases.

Have you consider intergalactic space? Oases might be farther apart there,
necessitating alternate strategies.
Received on Thu Dec 4 20:58:34 1997