[ExI] Virtual Reality is where the aliens are

[Keith Henson]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 5:00 AM,  "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> Sure but why would that apply to *all* of the newly capable civilizations?
> We sprayed signals in all directions as soon as we could do it, before we
> got any prime directives from anywhere.  If such a directive exists, there
> should be rogues here and there.

Spike, it's a thin shell, hundred years thick more or less.  It's
going to fall to the noise level before it gets far.

>>...Or there is some transcendence from this dimension/universe/reality to
> another at a certain level of evolution, which is the true "expansion" of
> advanced intelligence. I don't mean VR.  -Henry
>
> Sure again, but why would that notion apply to all civilizations everywhere
> and everywhen?  We sent out signals before we singularitied out of view or
> nanoteched inward or jumped into the next higher dimension or nuked
> ourselves or VRed ourselves, before any of the theoretical good or bad
> scenarios happened.  We were sending out signals before we even had personal
> computers.
>
> There should be other societies that get to about where we are now, then
> level out in a comfortable lazy middle age, sending signals both directed
> and unintentional, but not bothering to look for replies, perhaps without
> the technology to receive or decode.
>
> Once again I am compelled to at least ponder the mind-boggling possibility
> that we really are the first ones here.

We can't see the whole thing, just the ones in our light cone.  Still,
there has been enough metals to make earth-like planets for close to
ten billion years.  That's a big light cone.

> But there have been earth-like
> planets, there have been metals for eons.  I am at a complete loss to
> explain why others didn't evolve billions of years ago, and if they did,
> where are the indications?  How the hell could they *all* be missing?

Suitable places may be much less common than we think.  And the
universe may be much harder on lifeforms as well.  In 774 or 775 the
Earth seems to have been in the path of a gamma ray burst.  It was too
weak to have biological effect, but much closer, it would have been
rough.

*IF* a species was inclined to spread out to the stars, the obvious
way to travel is light sails pushed by laser cannons themselves
powered by stars.  The spill around the light sails would be visible
clear across the visible universe.  We don't see such or at least have
not yet.

Being the first is perhaps the best situation.  That makes our future
unknown instead of vanishing for some reason.  If technological
lifeforms are common, then *something* gets all of them.

Keith