[ExI] fermi paradox

[BillK]

On Dec 8, 2007 5:51 PM, John K Clark wrote:
> My two choices were that we are the first or there is something waiting in
> the wings to sabotage mind when it gets too big for its britches, probably
> drug addiction.
>

George Dvorsky has just posted an interesting piece about the fermi
paradox on his blog.

<http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com/2007/12/problem-with-999-of-so-called-solutions.html>

Transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom refers to this as the strong
convergence hypothesis -- the idea that all sufficiently advanced
civilizations converge towards the same optimal state (or go extinct).

This is a hypothesized developmental tendency akin to a Dawkinsian
fitness peak -- the suggestion that identical environmental stressors,
limitations and attractors will compel intelligences to settle around
optimal existential modes. This theory does not favour the
diversification of intelligence – at least not outside of a very
strict set of living parameters.

The question thus becomes, what is the space of all possible
post-Singularity machine minds that result in a civilization's (or a
singleton's) ongoing existence?

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BillK