[extropy-chat] Dark matter and ET

[Dan Clemmensen]

Emlyn wrote:

>Mike wrote:
>  
>
>>Quite so, Robin. But Dan's premise also fails a test of extropic logic,
>>which is that the marginal utility of a colony in another star system
>>is not just the computation happening in that star system, but also the
>>probes being spawned to other systems from there, and others in turn,
>>as an exponential budding process. Sure, the core SI takes a loss
>>computationally for the first few generations, but the exponential
>>growth quickly overtakes that, especially if each probe travels with a
>>supply of entangled particles or is otherwise able to establish some
>>sort of FTL network once they've reached a destination star system.
>>    
>>
>
>Also, if the loss of an asteroid worth of computronium is a problem,
>you could always set out with the aim to relativistically hurl back a
>lot more matter to replace the asteroid with; that way, you can
>balance the cost of the present matter with the gain of a lot more
>future matter (heavily discounted of course because of elapsed time)
>and have the whole enterprise be worth the trouble for the net gain in
>computronium alone.
>
>  
>
This is a valid argument. but it depends on the discount rate. tech 
original Si is
presumed to have converts the natal solar system into computroniun. If the
nearest neighbor  is 4 LY, then the ROI commences 8 years after the 
investment,
minimum.

I did fail to analyse the "mining" scenario. I postulated the 
information scenario
instead. In the information scenario, the original SI sends a probe and 
receives
information. In the "mining scenario, the original SI sends a probe and 
receives
matter. I guess that the mining scenario has a positive NPV,  We send an 
asteriod's mass
out, and we begin receiving mass (computronium 8 years later. Within 9 
years, we receive
about half the mass of the target solar system: eh other half of the 
mass is converted to
energy associated with moving the other system's mass to the original 
system.

The target system will also expend a tiny percentage of its mass to 
generate probes
to send to other systems: these other systems will then send their mass 
back to the
original system. This creates the expanding sphere that Eugene refers to.

We still need to compute the NPV: the incremental information generated 
by an
asteriod's worth of computronium in 8 years versus the value of  the 
information we
begin to generate using the new mass.