[ExI] [Bulk] Re: Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 1:46 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 26 August 2015 at 10:37, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> > ### A lot of small people will produce a large impact. Ergo, if there is
> no
> > large impact, there are few if any small people.
> >
>
> In effect that is just claiming that you believe nanoscale aliens don't
> exist.
> One small computronium device could contain the equivalent of billions
> of intelligences.
> ('Equivalent' because we don't know how these devices will be structured).
>
> You have to also claim that if these small computronium devices do
> exist then there must be billions clustered together so that we can
> detect them.
>
> Just because we can't detect them, doesn't mean they are not around.
>
>
### On the scale of the universe, the word "few" has different
connotations. There could be countless trillions of nanoscale aliens out
there, using up a millionth of the available energy flow and they might be
completely undetectable by our technology. But, to believe that this is
actually plausible and sustained over time, you would have to explain what
prevents the aliens from growing to 2x trillion and to claim 2 millionths
of the energy... then 4 x... you know the progression.

I know, this has been belabored ad nauseam - Berserkers, space
environmentalism, etc. are being trotted out as explanations for "invisible
aliens all over the place". I do not find any of the explanations I heard
to be plausible The least implausible explanation for the invisibility of
aliens is still their extreme scarcity. And by scarcity I mean extreme low
frequency of spacefaring civilization starts - on the order of less than
one per galaxy cluster in the last couple of billion years and none before.

Rafał
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