[ExI] Why Pioneers Breed Like Rabbits

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 11:07:12AM +0000, BillK wrote:

> I like this paper. It explains how human (and all life) expands into
> unpopulated areas.

That papers explains why pioneers change their strategy to
harvest maximum benefits; it shouldn't take a paper to convince
anyone that life is intrinsically expansive. A look out of
your window or your mere existances should be sufficient
proof.
 
> But it stops at space.  'Simple' evolutionary life expands to fill

Did you just call Canadians simple evolutionary life, eh? ;)

> niches where it can find life support. It doesn't expand into deadly,
> barren environments. Only a few try it, most die, and few return to
> tell their tales.

Life which is capable of restructuring hitherto barren environments
into occupyable niches (niche (auto-)construction) has no such issues.  
 
> OK, so you might claim that advanced human descendants would take
> their life support along with them plus all the technology to create
> more life support for all their progeny.

I'm claiming that machine-phase (which can be extremely simple)
can live natively in the space environment, in fact thrive in it.
Everyone else just doesn't matter, long-term.
 
> But advanced civilisation is the opposite of breeding like rabbits.

Somebody fetch me an advanced civilisation, then. Before then, 
arguing about properties of such is indistinguishable from unicornology.

> Evolutionary expansion no longer applies. They *choose* their
> environment and build it to suit themselves. They *choose* how many
> progeny they want to create and for what purpose. If they have

The point of above paper that people and plants behave in the same
way, so it's a generic principle which is very likely scale- and 
substrate-invariant.

> thousand-year lifespans they will probably create very few offspring.

Evolution optimizes also generation lifespan durations. Diversity 
enhances stability and decreases amount of control.

> The idea of creating millions of entities and firing them off to
> colonise the universe is an insane waste of resources originating in
> primitive human evolutionary drives.

Yes, that's your opinion, we know. The universe disagrees.