[ExI] Interstellar FedEx.

[spike]

....On Behalf Of John Clark
	Subject: Re: [ExI] Interstellar FedEx.	
....

	...If you're concerned with interstellar distances then it's very
hard to understand why you'd ever want to move matter around, moving
information is so much quicker and more economical. If you insisted you
could transfer the quantum state of an object and it wouldn't use much more
energy than moving information, but teleportation is difficult for large
objects and seems overkill to me... John K Clark


I have pondered the question in terms of what would be the minimum amount of
matter and information required to spread sentient presence.  Sending
information out from earth would pointless unless there is someone or
something out there to receive the signal.  So imagine the smallest possible
replicating assembler with just enough information aboard to build a
receiver, point it towards earth and send the message 2 3 5 7 11 13, which
means: 

I have arrived, decelerated successfully, found metals, build receiver,
replicated madly, now awaiting further orders.

How much information is required to do that, and how do we estimate the mass
of the simplest replicator?  Once I have that info, I can estimate what it
would take to accelerate the mass and decelerate it upon arrival.

spike