[ExI] Singletons

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark
Subject: Re: [ExI] Singletons

 

On Jan 3, 2011, at 12:30 PM, Anders Sandberg wrote:





>>.Imagine that there is a particular kind of physics experiment that causes
cosmic vacuum decay. Anders

 

 

>.Perhaps that explains the Fermi Paradox, in the context of Everett's Many
World interpretation we happen to be living in a fantastically unlikely
universe where nobody has thought of that very obvious and simple
experiment, yet.John K Clark    

 

 

I thought of a related notion: perhaps there is some technology that causes
a star to collapse to neutronium, so that in general, technology-enabled
planets eventually stumble upon it and accidentally big-crunch the star
about which they orbit, subsequently freezing all the surrounding planets,
resulting in that tech-enabled life form disappearing forever without a
whimper.  I would reach for that as an explanation for dark matter, but it
has a problem: it doesn't explain why the dark matter in a galaxy seems to
be way more prevalent in the outer regions of a galaxy than in the galactic
core.

 

Perhaps the galactic core stars are more often sterilized by nearby gamma
ray bursts, so technology has more time to develop in the galactic suburbs?


 

I rely on imaginative SF writers to speculate on an explanation.

 

spike

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





The system monitors all activity, and stomps on attempts at making the
experiment. Everybody knows about the limitation and can see the logic of
it. It might be possible to circumvent the system, but it would take
noticeable resources that fellow inhabitants would recognize and likely
object too.

Now, is this really unacceptable and/or untenable?


The rigidity of rules the singleton enforces can be all over the place from
deterministic stimulus-responses to the singleton being some kind of AI or
collective mind. The legitimacy can similarly be all over the place, from a
basement accidental hard takeoff to democratic one-time decisions to
something that is autonomous but designed to take public opinion into
account. There is a big space of possible singleton designs.





Let's look at a population of cultures the size of a galaxy. How do

you produce an existential risk within a single system that can wipe more
than a stellar system? In order to produce larger scale mayhem

you need to utilize the resources of a large number of stellar

systems concertedly, which requires large scale cooperation of

pangalactic EvilDoers(tm).

 


If existential risks are limited to local systems, then at most there is a
need for a local singleton (and maybe none, if you like living free and
dangerously).

However, there might be threats that require wider coordination or at least
preparation. Imagine interstellar "grey goo" (replicators that weaponize
solar systems and try to use existing resources to spread), and a situation
of warfare where the square of number of units gives the effective strength
(as per the Lanchester law; whether this is actually true in real life will
depend on a lot of things). In that case allowing the problem to grow in a
few systems far enough would allow it to become overwhelming. In this case
it might be enough to coordinate defensive buildup within a broad ring
around the goo, but it would still require coordination - especially if
there were the usual kind of public goods problems in doing it.


-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University 
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