[extropy-chat] In the Long Run, How Much Does Intelligence Dominate Space?

[Lee Corbin]

Russell writes

> ...what I said: that as a star system fills up, it would seem
> likely to start posting "any further immigrants please move on
> to the next empty star system" notices.

Well  :-)  that's a bit more polite than just shooting them 
down without saying anything, I guess.

More seriously, however, I posit the following structure to a
mature galaxy:

1. there is a critical radius of integrity whereby an entity
   maximizes computations for its own purposes within its
   boundary. Entities outside that boundary are regarded much
   as we regard foreign nations or other individuals

2. assuming that this radius is on the order of a light year
   then (following Dyson and Bradbury), stars are shrouded to
   extract maximum energy, or (Criswell) stars are altered
   to maximize long term gain, or (me) stars are novaed to
   get the mostest soonest (why waste resources on the 
   future, anyway?  seems to me to be a characteristic idea
   of humans who are familiar with very limited tech)

3. no entities bother sending pellets or probes out anymore;
   except perhaps to outside the galaxy, but not even then
   if it is known that nearby galaxies have been colonized.

This latter is for the aforesaid reasons that pellets are a clunky
way to send information, and the threat of physical force would be
badly received anyway. Instead, there is an "idea gradient". More
advanced stars would constantly be trying to subvert the less
advanced, in order to persuade them to run its algorithms.

Yes, this is partly from compulust, but its also the answer supplied
by Darwinian evolution: algorithms tend to run over large regions
which can subvert nearby systems, and which can in turn resist
subversion from outside.

This, then, is the arms race I have envisioned: a "wind from Earth"
(or other entity more advanced than you are) must be carefully
scrutinized to keep out algorithms that would subvert its identity.
At the same time, it must allow algorithms that enhance its fitness.
(This and the above operate under the assumption that s-curves don't
top out for intelligence and algorithm advancement.)

The steady-state picture that emerges is one of larger empires 
perpetually being more advanced than smaller empires, that is,
at least so far as their centers are concerned. At their boundaries,
the level of advancement (thousands of years behind their respective
centers) is the same. Each side of such a boundary is continually
receiving updates from the direction of its own center, and its
those updates that enable it to remain on par with the empire
across the divide.

Lee