From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 20 2000 - 07:25:27 MDT
Robert Bradbury wrote:
>... "What do you colonize?" It turns out that brown dwarfs and M-class
>stars are *much* more abundant than the stars we can actually see. Brown
>dwarfs particularly are going to be easier to dismantle because they are
>smaller and cooler ... But ... may take a long time to dismantle (perhaps
>millions of years). If that is accurate, Robin's theories may be correct
>but the colonization wave may proceed very slowly ... large numbers of the
>Milky Way's Brown Dwarfs may be in the process of being dismantled to
>contribute to the MBrain population. ... The tasty bits *aren't* the
>closest ones but the ones you can dismantle the fastest.
My theory is that evolution selects a colonization wave strategy that
allows the fastest sustainable velocity, regardless of energy efficiency
or any other efficiency consideration. I will grant that dismantling
brown dwarfs may be the strategy that gives you the most total mass, or
spends the least energy per mass obtained, but its seems very unlikely
to give the fastest sustainable velocity.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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