From: Mark Walker (mail@markalanwalker.com)
Date: Tue Jun 11 2002 - 07:39:17 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "mike99" <mike99@lascruces.com>
To: <wta-talk@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "Extro List Digest-Owner" <owner-extropians-digest@extropy.org>
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2002 5:27 PM
Subject: RE: [wta-talk] Fw: Practical Cosmology Symposium--Five Papers Now
Online
> Another speculative possibility for resolving the Fermi Paradox is that
> intelligent life, at a certain point in its development, decides to ditch
> the paltry 10% or so of the universe that is composed of baryonic matter
and
> migrates to a new platform composed of Dark Matter (whatever the hell that
> is!). We know observationally that Dark Matter is the major source of
> gravitational effects in our universe. Perhaps Dark Matter biology is
> possible, but only as an engineered form of artificial life. This would
> raise a high barrier for entry to the realm of Dark Matter, a barrier that
> could be overcome only by a highly advanced civilization.
>
> A second speculation is that highly advanced civilizations consist of
> uploaded minds that wish to live unobtrusively, and hence do not choose to
> create anything so outstandingly obvious as Dyson spheres. Perhaps they do
> this because of an aesthetic to which they adhere. Or maybe there are
> malevolent entities abroad in the universe, perversions of
superintelligence
> that seek civilizations on which to prey or feed. (Hans Moravec is so
> concerned about the latter scenario that he has advised against
advertising
> our presence through SETI broadcasting [but not receiving] and the
placement
> of information about Earth and its inhabitants on our space probes bound
for
> interstellar space.)
>
> (NOTE: In John Smart's paper "Answering the Fermi Paradox: Exploring the
> Mechanisms of Universal Transcension"
> http://www.transhumanist.com/Smart-Fermi.htm hyperspatial multidimensional
> universes play the part that Dark Matter does in my speculation here, and
> his Transcension is implied in the upload concept used here.)
>
> Combining all of the above speculations, it could be the case that highly
> advanced civilizations eventually migrate from normal matter existence
into
> uploaded forms built on Dark Matter substrates, and then "pull up the
> drawbridge behind them" as it were. So perhaps we don't see evidence of
> their existence because we're looking in the wrong place. Only when we
have
> mastered the techniques for doing what they did would we have a chance of
> detecting their presence. We can't join their club until we can see where
it
> is and how it came to be there!
The cool club is always hard to join--or so I am told. :) Robert
Bradbury has developed a number of ideas similar to yours (see
http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/MatrioshkaBrains/WSGD.html ). One question
is whether dark matter is consequence of intelligent activity. For example,
the title of Robert's paper above is "When Stars Go Dark"--the idea being
that the most efficient use of a star might be one where no light escapes.
I wonder how it meets the "just one" objection. You (and Robert) might be
right that this is the most prudent thing to do--but what about the "blond
beasts" among the stars. Those that would rather risk everything in the
hopes of colonizing the galaxy and beyond as opposed to "pulling up the
drawbridge". Here's the "just one" problem again: we just need to imagine
that one civilization decides to risk it all and go on a colonizing terror.
What mechanism do you propose to reign in such rogues? Remember too that the
colony need not send any of its members but only von Neumann probes (as
Tipler argues). The idea is that you send out a robotic probe, when it gets
to the next solar system it builds copies of itself and its propulsion
system using locally available materials. These probes are sent off to other
systems. The original probe can then set itself the task of transforming the
local solar system creating habitable zones for its original organic makers.
The probe then uses the genome blueprint to make new "blond beasts", perhaps
using artificial wombs for the first generation. Rather than being a risky
strategy this seems to be one that heeds Grandma's advice not to put all
your eggs in one basket (i.e., in one solar system or local region). Of
course we don't need to assume that every or even many civilizations choose
this strategy--we only have to assume that one civilization successful
launches such a colonization wave.
Mark
Dr. Mark Walker
Research Associate (Philosophy), Trinity College, University of Toronto
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Evolution and Technology,
(www.transhumanist.com)
Editor-in-Chief, Transhumanity, (www.transhumanism.com)
Home page: http://www.markalanwalker.com
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