[extropy-chat] In the Long Run, How Much Does Intelligence Dominate Space?

[Russell Wallace]

On 7/7/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
>
> Well, I figure if Criswell can figure out a way to actually
> *lift* star matter (!), then get it to go bang should be
> comparatively simple.


I figured out starlifting independently - given that you're dealing with
plain hydrogen and helium, as I understand it, lifting is easier than bang.
But yeah, there's no question bang is possible, nature does it now and then
after all.

Oh!  I was not intending to do this anytime soon. But not
> millions of years either.  We should do it as soon as we
> have all uploaded, and the really smart types running our
> Dyson sheaves know they can capture all the energy.


That was the scenario I was thinking of - even nanotech solar collectors can
only store energy in chemical form (hence can't capture a significant
fraction of a nuclear or gravitational bang), and are vulnerable to rad
damage.

(I
> admit that this may turn out to not be possible, but we
> shouldn't get too deeply into the habit of ruling out
> possibilities that AIs may consider---unless, of course,
> we understand the physics so well that, like traveling
> faster than light, it just doesn't make any sense at all
> to suppose that it could ever be done.)


Oh sure - as I've already said, life is unpredictable - for all we really
know, our descendants will be tapping energy from the Zero Point. (AI is
irrelevant to this.) As long as we're speculating based on the laws of
physics as we know them, though, it seems to me a steady flow of energy is
more useful than a bang.

Yes, up to the chance that I can partake, and yes, also out of
> some residual loyalty to the human race, my family, nation, etc.,
> and other outmoded loyalties in the age of individualism.
>

Heh, difference in philosophy I guess; I serve humanity, otherwise I'd let
someone else worry about all this progress stuff and go catch up on some
beer drinking and anime watching while my life lasts.
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