Re: the end of fermi's paradox?

From: Philip Goetz (philgoetz@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Jan 04 2007 - 20:33:08 MST


On 1/4/07, Chris Petersen <moses2k@gmail.com> wrote:
> With a point that vulnerable, who needs more than one? :)
>
> In a community of minds, there may be competition for resources, both
> comptronium and sunlight. The first mind(seed) with a nanofac to reach a
> new star system would have first option on its resources, and thus, might
> gain for itself more processing power than it would be likely to attain in
> its home system.
>
> Or are we still missing something?
>
> -Chris

The solar system around the star will have negligibly more mass-energy
than the star itself.

I think you're getting at a problem, that, if energy is currency, then
the energy available in the home system is limited, which doesn't
allow for endless exponential inflation.

If it doesn't, that would imply that economic growth is limited by
energy supply. Not in the intuitive way you might be imagining, such
as the US economy being limited by oil supply, but in a more
surprising sense, that even if you have a sustainable ecosystem, and
people have enough energy to move around and do their business, it is
still impossible for economic growth to be exponential. This would
surprise me greatly.



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