[ExI] Are Dyson swarms a good idea?

[Jason Resch]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 9:50 AM John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 8:32 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> *>> I believe that even for a superintelligence there would be no
>>> disputing matters of taste. And you are the one that claims to know how
>>> post Singularity Jupiter Brains would behave, you claim they would all
>>> behave just like you would, every single one of them. B**ut I do not
>>> claim to know that they would all behave in one certain way, and I
>>> certainly don't claim **they would all behave just as I would, but if
>>> just one of them did then the galaxy would look engineered. But it doesn't.
>>> Without tying myself into logical knots I can only think of one explanation
>>> for that *
>>
>>
>> *> I made no claims they would agree with me or agree with you. I only
>> suggest there are reasons we can expect them to converge on whatever the
>> right answer is, and hence, all agree with one another.*
>
>
> *There is no "right answer" to the question "Do you want to build a Dyson
> sphere?", there are only opinions, and as I said there is no disputing
> matters of taste.  *
>

if Dyson swarms were art pieces I would be inclined to agree that the
choice to build one is a matter of taste, but Dyson swarms are generally
assumed to serve some utilitarian purpose -- one whose benefits outweigh
their costs.

The benefit over cost calculation in terms of its computations returned per
unit of energy invested, may not be the best of all technologies a super
intelligence might consider. As I've already shown, you can get a higher
return on computations using a black hole heatsink.

You wouldn't consider the choice between hunting whales for lamp oil vs.
building a thorium reactor a matter of taste, would you?


> *We see the aliens from the movie independence day as evil for trying to
>> wipe out life on Earth. *
>
>
> *A real stinker of a movie, I wish you'd picked a better example.  *
>

What example would you have used?


> *> Is it not an equivalent evil to build a Dyson swarm around an alien
>> star and preclude any chance of life from emerging on any planet in that
>> system?*
>
>
> *I don't think so, I feel that converting dumb matter into smart matter is
> the very opposite of evil, but that's just my opinion. *
>

Fortunately for us our star was not converted a time when the solar system
was dead.


>
> *> I don't know what a post singular mind would consider right or wrong on
>> that matter. I only know the answer is not as obvious as you make it out to
>> be.*
>
>
> *You're the one who claims the answer is so obvious everyone will agree
> with you, even Mr. Jupiter Brain.*
>

Bold of you to say that when my quote above refutes it.

Jason


> *John K Clark  *
>
>
>
>
>>
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