[extropy-chat] "Hyperdrive Engine Could Let Us Reach Mars in 3 Hours"

[Robert Bradbury]

On 9/24/06, Michael Anissimov <michaelanissimov at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Can anyone make sense out of this?
>
> http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7241



I'll leave the physics comments to the physicists.  I'll comment from a
practical point that unless one of these (hyperdrive based spaceships) can
easily (&cheaply!) be built *Mars won't be there*.

Mars is probably #2 (after the asteroids) for solar system bodies to be
disassembled as soon as the technology becomes available.  As sending the
nanorobots there to start disassembly is relatively cheap (compared to say
setting up a human colony) I would expect it to start much sooner unless
some international solar system regulatory authority comes into existence
which physically prevents people (& corporations) from executing such
projects [1] .

I'll also comment that *if* hyperdrives are feasible and can be developed by
a presingularity development stage advanced technological civilization it
makes the Fermi Paradox a *much* larger problem.  (I.e. the observational
fact that nearby stars (and galaxies) haven't been colonized (and taken
"dark) implies that intelligent life (and ATC) are *much* harder than most
astrobiologists would currently tend to believe.

Robert

1. I consider there to be a significant non-zero probability that one path
through the singularity involves police state(s) or AI overlord(s)
effectively imprisoning its population to prevent non-state ("world")
managed solar system development (or interstellar travel).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060924/ccac01c6/attachment.html>