[extropy-chat] will the sun rise?

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:01 AM 12/23/2004 -0500, Harvey Newstrom wrote:

>I do not believe AI can advance that far in 20 years.  I don't believe we 
>will have the technology to disassemble the sun in 20 years.  I don't 
>believe reproducing nanites or nanites that can survive the sun's heat 
>will be developed in 20 years.  I don't believe a space ship capable of 
>carrying such a project to the sun will be available in 20 years.  I don't 
>believe humans will be rearranging planets and [stars] within 20 years.

I agree, but some of these elements can be reframed. We started by talking 
about `the sun not rising'. Since the sun *never* rises (we just rotate 
toward it), the proposition is already lost. More in keeping with the 
spirit of ordinary usage, we could see the same effect if the *Earth* were 
disassembled appropriately; that's more doable, but probably not in the 
time frame proposed. But wait, who said anything about AIs and humans being 
the only players? We have absolutely no way to estimate how soon we might 
experience an intervention by extraterrestrials attracted here by old radio 
signals. Who knows what tricks such advanced beings might play on us? Then 
there's the whole simulation postulate... It gets hard to be entirely sure 
that `the sun also rises'.

BTW: Could people *please* change subject lines as the topics wander?

Damien Broderick