[ExI] endpoint of evolution: was RE: why anger?

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of x at extropica.org
> ...
> 
> Spike, my evil twin, you know I love ya...

You are too kind Jef, and do let me assure you the affection is mutual, but
how can you be certain I am the evil twin?  And what if we were actually
triplets.  Then we could have one good, one evil, and then where would the
other one go?  If we put goodness on the real axis, then had a perpendicular
imaginary goodness axis representing (-1)^.5 times goodness, how do we map
our complex good/evil?

Actually I think we already riffed on that whole concept a couple years ago.
Amara got involved in it as I recall when she was in a particularly playful
mood and the whole thing was a total hoot.  But to your question:

>... but doesn't your 
> response, emphasizing the eschatology of filling the universe 
> with thought, illustrate that very trend which I was 
> questioning and lamenting?

Ja I confess that it does, and that I am puzzled at why you would lament.
With sufficient intelligence and capacity for thought, we can form a
superset of everything interesting in the universe, even a superset of
everything boring, should we decide we want it.  If we look around us, most
matter, the overwhelming majority of the metal, is not involved in any life
form, never mind the vanishingly small portion involved in any smartform.

Given sufficient capacity for thought and calculation, we have the option of
bringing all the available metals to life!  We can simulate all imaginable
life forms, in every possible ecosystem, in a way that this planet could
never do for its lack of room.  

We can sim blue green algal mats all we want, while devouring few resources,
but it isn't all that interesting, even to the algae.  What I would expect
is that intelligence recognizes its own worth, and works towards the
singularity, then on to a new and vast home space for itself, an MBrain
which uses every available atom of everything below the top row on the
periodic chart.

Thought is good, thinking is good, invention is good.  We have one species
on this planet that is particularly good at it, and it has allowed that
species to radiate in all directions, and fill all available spaces on this
planet, and off of it.  Thought is good, calculation is good, simulation is
good.

I see evolution as driving toward an ultimate point where all the metal is
thinking, calculating, simulating, evolving ever more information and more
and better concepts and ideas.  I can scarcely imagine a logical stopping
point or equilibrium in the evolutionary process which stops driving towards
an MBrain.  Can you?

Do not lament Jef, rejoice!  You and I are fortunate enough to have been
born right exactly at the right time in history where consciousness of the
coming age of super-efficient smartforms is dawning like the long awaited
approach of the glorious sun's rays on a sparkling clear morning.

spike