[ExI] Von Neumann Probes

[John Clark]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 5:32 PM BillK via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> I asked Claude Opus 4,5 - Will all advanced civilizations build a Dyson
> swarm around their star? Claude suggested that this idea could be a
> mistaken projection of 20th-century ideas onto the cosmos.*


*I don't find any of Claude's excuses to explain the embarrassing fact that
astronomers have never seen anything like a Dyson sphere to be persuasive.
If intelligent life is common in the observable universe I simply don't
believe that not one of the trillion quadrillion minds in that
universe thought it would be a good idea to make a 10^-12 gram self
duplicating machine that is capable of making a Dyson Sphere, lots of them.
Hell, I am a mind in the observable universe and if I had the ability to
make such a machine I certainly would, and I don't think I'm unique.  *

*Some of Claude's excuses are just embarrassingly bad, like "Exploiting
compact objects." and  "Vacuum energy or exotic physics" and  "Artificial
fusion or antimatter production". I thought Claude was smarter than that.
Regardless of how exotic your energy producing mechanism is, you're not
going to get around the Second Law Of Thermodynamics. If you make a lot of
energy then you're going to make a lot of waste energy in the form of
infrared radiation. And we would be able to see that. But we don't. **That
fact needs an explanation. And I believe the simplest explanation is the
best one. *


* John K Clark*









On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 21:22, John Clark via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> *You may not be proposing it but it's not realistic to propose nobody
>> anywhere will be dissatisfied with the pitifully small amount of energy
>> that a fusion reactor that can fit on a planet's surfers can produce, and
>> it's not realistic to propose that intelligent life is common but nobody
>> develops Nanotechnology even though it requires no breakthroughs in
>> physics, just improved engineering.  And once you have that, then just one
>> 10^-12 gram self reproducing machine would be all you'd need to give your
>> solar system a Dyson sphere. But even our largest telescopes have seen no
>> signs of a Dyson Sphere, I maintain that the best explanation for that
>> observational fact is that we are alone in the observable universe.*
>>
>> *John K Clark*
>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>
>
>
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