[ExI] Fermi Paradox and Transcension

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 1:44 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 4:14 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:

> Kurzweil and others have speculated about turning the whole universe
> into computronium. Starting with the solar system, then nearby star
> systems, then the whole galaxy and onwards. They want to make ALL
> matter intelligent.  That's one option.

Seems logical to me. Life tends to expand into ALL available niches.
Why would that stop now?

> I'm not keen on that option because we are fairly late arrivals in
> this universe and by now we should all have been converted to
> computronium by earlier civs expansion, if this was a likely
> development path.

Your assumption that we are fairly late arrivals in the universe is
not founded on any fact, just supposition. It MAY well be that life is
extremely rare, and possibly even unique. I don't think so, but it is
possible. The Fermi paradox remains a paradox to me.

> There is a lot of room at the bottom. Computronium will produce
> millions of times the power of our chips in the same amount of matter.
> So quite a small amount of matter could accommodate all the earth's
> population. And we have the whole solar system to use if required.
> That gives everyone a virtual heaven to exist in and we have hardly
> used any matter. At present, assuming that STEM is the future path I
> don't see shortage of matter being a problem.
>
> But there is plenty of room for speculation.   Carry on!

I don't see intelligent life settling into some kind of sustainable
state of stasis. Yes, there is plenty of room at the bottom. I'm not
talking about accommodating the earth's population. I want a billion
copies of myself, all doing interesting things in parallel, like
having conversations in parallel with all of you and everyone else
too. I don't think I'll be alone in that desire. If individualism dies
out and we become some kind of collective brain, then we will be in
hell... alone with nobody to talk to but itself. I can't imagine any
intelligent being finding that to be a good long term solution, it
would seem like it would lead to some kind of madness.

Somewhere in this thread, I missed the definition of STEM. Sorry for
my ignorance... but could someone expand the acronym for me?

-Kelly