From: M T (nutralivol@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2006 - 04:39:02 MST
--- Philip Goetz <philgoetz@gmail.com> wrote:
> But, the book didn't distinguish between things that
> are solid,
> and things that are highly speculative, and even
> things that
> lunatic fringe (e.g., faster-than-light travel,
> altering the physical
> constants of the universe).
I don't see how there was not a distinction. It's
enough to say that you are speculating, right?
There was one source quoted on faster than light
travel about a perceived shift in a constant
co-dependent with c, over time in a natural nuclear
reactor, I believe. Of cource we would expect a
million different reasons than a shift in c over the
same period of time but the point was (presented in a
highly speculative manner) that exceeding or
circumvating the speed of light might be possible.
There were notions that it might be possible for a
superintelligence saturating the whole universe to
trigger the creation of a new universe with different
constants (as long as there can be alternate
realities). Maybe you mixed these two speculations up
and you remember that Kurzweil said something about
altering the constants of a currently running reality?
Flight was considered to lunatic fringe a couple of
centuries ago and you were sure to burn on a stake a
bit further back even if you speculated on intelligent machines.
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