[ExI] Fermi Paradox and Transcension

Keith Henson hkeithhenson at gmail.com
Thu Sep 6 13:47:49 UTC 2012


On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 5:00 AM,  Joshua Job <nanite1018 at gmail.com> wrote:

> There would be selection pressures and economic factors to consider. For
> example, humans or their uploads likely will be resource poor, as they will
> be inefficient in the environment of a computer system (we'll be carrying
> around bulky physics simulations to let us deal with information, each
> other, and our own brains). We may not be able to afford our own
> computational substrate, and be forced out of existence due to poverty and
> competition for finite and essentially non-increasing resources

Stross's Economics 2.0 in Accelerando.

I think that's already happening with the programmed high speed trading.

What's really interesting is that an older version was no longer
competitive and when it was accidentally run not long ago it proceeded
to loss close to $10 M a minute for 45 minutes before being shut down.

I don't know if the scale of the money involved or the rapid evolution
of these things is scarier.

> in our  local MBrain.

I made the case that the speed of light and heat sink problems prevent
MBrains from making sense.  I have yet to see a refutation, though I
would like to very much.

snip (several messages)

> Charlie Stross <charlie.stross at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Our sense of self-identity is emergent over time . . . .

I don't respond to Charlie very often.  It's because his thoughts are
clear and I almost always agree with them.

Keith



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