[ExI] Are Dyson swarms a good idea?

[Jason Resch]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 1:33 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 11:54 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > 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:
> >>> > 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.
>
> By that line of thought, any action at all - including inaction - is
> of the utmost evil, for any choice whatsoever inherently excludes
> countless other possibilities.
>

Before valuing possibilities you should define your value system. True,
every choice excludes some possibilities, but we tend to value some of
those possibilities more than others. This is why I stipulated a life
bearing world as better than a dead world. If we don't agree on this, then
you are correct the rest of the argument collapses and it makes no
difference what anyone does. But I don't find nihilism very practical.



> Let us assume the multi-world hypothesis from quantum mechanics, for
> ease of framing.  Literally everything you do dooms our universe to
> not be any of the other universes that branch off from that decision
> point - and is therefore, by your logic, evil in equal measure to the
> nigh-infinite (or maybe literally infinite) combined potential in
> those other universes that ours will never experience.
>

But that same multiverse theory says all possibilities are realized (though
with different measure). This is why we can justify putting our seatbelt,
even in a multiverse.


> If everything you could do, including nothing, is infinitely evil,
> then that measure of evil is rendered meaningless.  There would be
> nothing that is more evil or less evil: they'd all be infinitely evil.
>


Only if you think a living world is no better than a dead one. But then,
why get up in the morning?

Jason
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