[ExI] ETs/Aliens

[Adrian Tymes]

On Wed, Sep 4, 2024 at 11:30 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Maybe it is true that given arbitrarily much time, we could keep finding
> new fun somewhere, finding new and interesting things to learn.  But we
> might not be able to do that.  After a certain period of time, we might
> conclude that OK, we have lived enough.  When we stop learning, thinking,
> growing, we are the functional equivalent of dead, even if we still draw
> breath and our hearts still beat.  Perhaps 50 million years at one human
> equivalent speed is sufficient to reach that end point.
>
> But of course we don't know that.  It would be equivalent to six million
> consecutive human lives, so we have no way to comprehend what that would be
> like.
>

We've known since at least the time of the ancient Greek philosophers.  I'm
told that Aristotle observed that, even in his day, information was being
produced faster than one person could learn it all.  The same seems
abundantly true today.  New fun keeps being created and shared in an
exponentially increasing rate, as more humans are enabled to be content
creators - which inevitably means an increasing number (whether or not the
same percentage) of them hit upon forms that appeal (or would appeal, with
sufficient marketing/advertising to spread awareness) to a substantial
number of other people.

As you enjoy things, new things to enjoy are being made at a faster rate
than you can consume them - even if you had all your needs taken care of
and devoted yourself entirely to consuming content without ever again
creating anything of interest to others, a lifestyle that some strive to
approach.  Of course, part of this is because there is some subset of
humanity - again, some percentage (likely to increase as more of humanity
gains access to the relevant tools) - that finds fun in creating content
for others to enjoy.  The only way that's going down is if the human
population dramatically shrinks, which would cause several more urgent
problems.
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