[extropy-chat] Dark matter and ET

[Mike Lorrey]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
> > 
> > Even so, what use are stars?
> > 
> > And with life 3.85 billion years old on Earth, and the Milky Way
> 100,000
> > lightyears across, how likely is it that more than one intelligent
> species
> > arises in a galaxy before the first species takes over the whole
> galaxy?
> >  
> 
> Unlikely indeed, unless they are keeping a few percent of them
> untouched just to see what will evolve there.

I think the percentage is higher, and the expansion rate is much lower,
otherwise radiation and byproducts from drive exhausts should be
evident in the spectra of most galaxies, and furthermore, galaxies
would undergo exponential curves in conversion of hydrogen to helium 3
in excess of what would be expected by the star count.

Following long term trends of our own species, I project that posthuman
interstellar civilizations will be very environmentally concious and
will only occupy worlds (when they do occupy worlds), or disassemble
worlds, that are not life  bearing but are terraformable, or they will
occupy worlds that are not terraformable at all and unlikely to
encounter human-level or transhuman species unless those species
develop sufficient spaceflight to go out to find and meet them.

Most likely they will construct habitats from dust around orphan brown
dwarfs in interstellar space, both to be as hard to find (thermally
speaking) and as hard to reach as possible from G-class orbiting terran
worlds, which would cause only those species on the verge of
posthumanity themselves likely to find them.

Given what we've seen of extrasolar planets so far, with most being
super-jovians and brown dwarfs in highly eccentric orbits, and those
have only been detected so far by doppler shift of their primary, with
one loose brown dwarf being imaged directly so far, it seems clear that
even without dyson or matrioshka spheres around them, they are very
hard to find for beings at our level of development.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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