RE: Another Take on the Fermi Paradox

From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Dec 23 2002 - 13:29:07 MST


> I can think of a new explanation

Well, not exactly *new*, but it does seem the most plausible, given the
constraints we know of.

> entities with more computing power have an overwhelming developmental
> advantage over entities with less computing power.

Quite. Better, smaller, faster. This is the view I put forward in THE SPIKE
in 1997, and Robert Bradbury, Eugene Leitl and others have discussed the
implications repeatedly on the extropian list before that and especially
during the last few years.

> This could mean that post-singularity entities continue to compete amongst
> themselves, or it could mean that they greatly desire to continue
> to be able to comprehend each other. Alternately, it could also mean that
> post-singularity entities become one giant entity and the prospect of
splitting into
> developmentally divergent entities is abhorrent to such an entity.

Yes. Hans Moravec's Exes (in his book ROBOT) make pretty Spielberg special
FX, but seem insufficiently spikish to be taken seriously.

Damien Broderick



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