[ExI] Von Neumann Probes

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 9:52 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> Keith wrote:
> > Years ago, I outlined an SF story about a time when a small number of humans left the solar system to explore the galaxy in Von Neumann mode, sending data back via launching lasers. Eventually, Earth quits responding, so the explorers send a ship back to see what is wrong. They find a cremated world. Looking into their copy of the transmission code, they discover an error where, instead of relaying the data through the previous nodes, all data is sent directly to Earth.
>
> > It was a clear case of burnout from information overload.
>
> Groan!

I do believe I shall spread word of that story to certain circles today.