[extropy-chat] Dark matter and ET

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> 
> I suppose simple discount rates might then have an effect on the 
> expected brightness of galaxies, even though other aspects of the 
> utility function are irrelevant!  In that sense, I accept the correction.

Maybe that's the real explanation for the different apparent magnitudes of 
"stars" and "galaxies"; they represent, not different stellar processes, but 
simply intelligent information-processing centers with different discount 
rates in their expected utility functions.  Perhaps future astronomers will 
utilize a scale of shortsightedness in place of the present system of stellar 
magnitudes.

(CCHI)

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence