[ExI] Uploads as a group of AI agents

[John Clark]

On Sat, Mar 28, 2026 at 3:09 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> If there are aliens, it seems to me that they could have constructed a
> much larger data center in their home star system and not bothered to
> spread out. *


*That doesn't explain why one ET hasn't sent out one Von Neumann probe. *

>
> *Communications between them [different uploaded civilizations or
> individuals around a star] would be (from their viewpoint) painfully slow.*


*But also extremely information rich. The communication channel would have
lots of latency but also contain lots of data, far far more than anything
in biology. *

*John K Clark*







>
> > How could the purported aliens around the Tabby stars have a single
> civilisation?
>
> They would not.  If the dipping stars are all the result of these
> aliens, they have spread out around 1000 light-years (in a time the
> AIs estimate at 3000 years), which would make their expansion around
> 1/3 of c.  If their perception of time is close to ours, news from one
> star to the next would be historical by the time it got from one star
> to the next.
>
> > The answer is, given no breaking of known physics, they couldn't. Even
> running at slow speeds (which as you point out, seems very unlikely), the
> assemblies around different stars can't effectively communicate with each
> other in such a was as to maintain a cohesive civilisation (unless their
> psychology is very strange indeed), so they'd be several different ones.
> >
> > There's no reason this can't apply in a single solar system. Rather than
> aiming for a single civilisation with relatively quick communication
> speeds, you accept that there will be many different ones, each fairly
> independent, only communicating with each other at slow or extremely slow
> speeds (or not at all).
> >
> > I see nothing wrong with a Dyson swarm where the light-speed limit means
> that there are many many overlapping spheres of 'local influence', where
> the people in one sphere can communcate easily with each other, a bit less
> easily with people a bit farther away, etc. There would probably end up
> being gradual shifts in cultures with distance, making things much more
> varied and  interesting.
> >
> > Transmitting yourself to the other side of the solar system should still
> be possible, either directly or in a series of local hops, for the
> adventurous, and I can imagine that a commonly-agreed set of protocols
> could exist that would enable long-distance communication of things like
> technological advances, news, etc., in a series of ripples with many
> different sources.
> >
> > There could even be different cultures that run at different speeds,
> dictated by different availability of energy (maybe civilisations in
> data-centres out beyond the Oort cloud would run much more slowly than ones
> close in to the sun)
>
> Possibly.  I think the optimal place for an uploaded civilization is
> way out from the habitat zone where the lower temperature reduces
> computer error rates.
>
> But this is all speculation on speculation.  If there are aliens, it
> seems to me that they could have constructed a much larger data center
> in their home star system and not bothered to spread out.  Though who
> knows, they might be trying to avoid all eggs in one basket.
>
> Keith
> > --
> > Ben
> >
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