[ExI] Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

[BillK]

On 28 August 2015 at 21:24, spike  wrote:
> There has been a lot of recent talk about how neurosis and creativity are
> linked.  I offered a similar idea to that being promoted today, but called
> it the featherbed model: comfortable people don't create much, uncomfortable
> ones do.  Neurosis is uncomfortable, so neurotics create.  They are always
> thinking, wondering what to do to get more comfortable, like the homeless
> person sleeping on the park bench is uncomfortable; she squirms a lot.
>
> The silence of the cosmos is making me damn uncomfortable, and I am thinking
> a lot on how to solve this psychological park bench I am on.  I know that my
> current understanding of the universe doesn't explain it; I know that even
> singularity theory doesn't explain it (it helps (but post-singularity
> societies should want to expand (and I see no evidence they have (ja?))))  I
> am using some of my most creating thinking these days to try to resolve
> this, but I am no closer to getting comfortable than the homeless person on
> that hard old park bench.
>
> It could be something simple, such as advanced societies consistently fail
> to make the transition to renewable energy, so they all end up fighting over
> dwindling concentrated energy sources.  Or the really smart minority
> persistently get out-bred, so the population's collective intelligence and
> drive gradually dissipates like a mist in the cloudless spring dawn.
>
> I don't know Keith.  I worry.
>


It is worth worrying about species collapsing before reaching the singularity.
I suspect that many planets don't have enough resources, or the
resources are misused or wasted. Indeed, we may well be one of those.

The good news is that I don't think that post-singularity species
expand and spam the galaxy with their progeny. (Otherwise they would
be here already). Once nanotech and virtual worlds become available,
then life becomes too 'comfortable', as you say.
Uploaded eternal life, with benefits. What's not to like?  :)

So concentrate your worry on getting us through the singularity!

BillK