[ExI] Fermi Paradox and Transcension

[BillK]

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> While I hope this is possible and maybe true, I think there is a deep
> problem with the hypothesis: it assumes a very strong convergence to this
> lifestyle. It must be so good that no alien Amish or explorers get left
> behind to make the universe different. Can you imagine any cultural or
> technological innovation that would suck in 100% of humans?
>
>

Well, of course we are not talking about clever monkeys leaping into
black holes.  :)

It will be the future descendents of humanity after 500 or a thousand
years of transhumanism have left animal bodies behind long ago. As
humanity evolves into computronium with all that that implies not many
will resist the move to a different substrate. Perhaps some will, at
first, to succumb later. (Resistance is futile!).

Those determined few might live in the equivalent of luxurious
estates, with too few people and resources to go into space. Or
perhaps their 'insanity' will be treated as an illness and cured by
transhuman medicine.

Or, are you thinking that a society that moves into computronium might
still have a few entities that want to leave the society and venture
out into the frozen universe? Remember that for computronium
intelligences their high speed thought effectively makes the universe
stand still. Much more fun to stay inside with all the others.


BillK