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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>-----Original Message-----<br>From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK<br>...<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>...I agree that it seems to be pretty impossible for us to guess what advanced aliens might build. For example, many people seem to find it impossible to accept that aliens wouldn't be expansionist (like us) and want to colonise the galaxy. Therefore advanced aliens don't exist.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>...However, every intelligent species wants to solve problems and investigate their environment, so they will all develop some form of computing. And they will want to maximise this ability. But It may be this path that leads to them not expanding. After all if your computer tech fulfils every need, why do anything else?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>...BillK<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Ja! What if... there is some really significant math problem, analogous to Riemann's zeta function hypothesis for instance, that eventually occurs to intelligent species other than ours. Since I used that as an example, why not that one? It gets deeper and crazier every time you look at it, well, what Riemann's zeta function just keeps unpacking new goodies the deeper one digs?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Think it over for a minute: there is nothing human-specific in the zeta function that any other intelligent species wouldn't discover. I like it best described in terms of the integral:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><img width=250 height=56 style='width:2.6041in;height:.5833in' id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D253CE.ECF5DD30"><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Or if you like summation notation better, my point can be made that way too:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><img width=504 height=59 style='width:5.25in;height:.6145in' id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D253CE.ECF5DD30"><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Any intelligent species will eventually discover integration and series summation, all that. I can imagine no path to interplanetary space without having discovered both of those concepts. Any intelligent lifeform would discover e, and would discover all the rest of it. My conclusion is that every intelligent spacefaring species of any kind would have to know about Riemann’s zeta function, even if they had a different name for it and different symbols, they would find it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Imagine that the species gets into a mode where it focuses everything on that problem. It doesn’t care about talking to others and waiting for replies. It uses its available metal and energy to work on this problem, or one of the others. There might be future math problems that cause us to turn inward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Notice there is nothing anthropomorphic in the above conjecture: a problem exists, it has enormous consequences. So… perhaps intelligence species naturally get caught in one or more of them, and don’t worry much about fanning out through the galaxy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Perhaps math creates the Fermi filter without actually slaying everything. I hope that’s it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">
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