[ExI] Von Neumann probes for what?

[Tomasz Rola]

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011, BillK wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Anders Sandberg  wrote:
> <snip> probe descriptions ---
> > I think a probe infrastructure could be something that just looks like added
> > value to a civilization. It launches the probes, they spread and set up
> > waystations that can receive instructions and mindstates, as well as send
> > back observations. If they want to use the system they can. The key limiters
> > are whether the cost of the initial probe is high relative to the
> > civilization GDP and whether the time horizons of *every* entity within it
> > are so short there is no value in getting a fraction of the galaxy in the
> > far future.
> >
> >
> 
> Time horizons for a post-singularity culture tend towards eternity.
> 
> If the intelligence is processing in a substrate a million times
> faster than humans, that effectively 'freezes' the real universe. If
> they live on the edge of a black hole, then it actually does freeze
> the real universe so far as they are concerned.
> Sending out probes that never seem to move away is a pointless
> endeavour from their POV.

Nono, I think one of us has got this wrong. Isn't it that if they go 
inside the horizon, the "outside" universe speeds up? So the probes move 
among the stars like fireworks of sort. And for us, they freeze.

Or maybe you meant a white hole - they live their days in a bubble of fast 
time, while the universe can only hopelessly wait in pause for whatever 
gets out of this bubble one day. Of course, the pause is from their POV, 
we simply live as usually.

> That's likely why the galaxy hasn't already been swamped with probes
> many times over.
> (Or, possibly, no culture has ever survived its singularity).

Or that priorities and expectations change a lot after that. For amazonian 
native, going for holidays to Hawaii is quite incomprehensible, I guess. 
Ditto for buying books and stacking them on the floor because other places 
are already taken. And this is just a beginning.

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **