[ExI] taxonomy for fermi paradox fans:

[Flexman, Connor]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 6:14 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> The problem is that the bird in the hand is worth more. Remember it is
> exponential growth. Assuming a fast-thinker civ living in a created,
> ever-changing virtual reality, then the idea of voluntarily shutting
> down for trillions of years (even more in subjective time) until the
> end time of the universe appears very unlikely.

Anders takes this into account (thank you, Anders, for nailing everything
on this one). The bird in the hand is just a specific rule we have for
temporal discounting because we're still in a civilization where death
occurs and accidents happen frequently.
The argument isn't that they would shut down for trillions of years or
until the end time, that's absurd. Of course they're going to keep spending
most of their time alive. The idea is that they might rest for a few years
while fast probes reach where they want to go, or while other subjectively
slow processes are inhibited by the speed of light. You even make the point
yourself that they could immerse themselves in virtual reality instead of
shutting down, a simple explanation making long-term goals even more
attainable
Connor
-- 
Non est salvatori salvator,
neque defensori dominus,
nec pater nec mater,
nihil supernum.
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