At 11:43 AM 12/15/97 -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
>At the frontier, the behavior of replicators will be determined solely
>by the strategies which lead to maximum speed of expansion. If it makes
>no difference (from the point of view of speed of expansion) what the
>replicators do after launching, then frontier replicators will face no
>selection pressure on post-launch behavior.
>
>We should therefore expect that behavior to gradually evolve to be random.
>
One could imagine the evolution of a symbiote or parasite that convinces a
frontier replicator to let them reproduce at the same speed, but more
permanently. Consider the state of an oasis after the frontier replicator
has done its darndest to send out as many probes as possible. From the
point of view of a frontier replicator, it's an inedible mess. But as long
as there is one radio reciever connected to a universal assembler and a
power supply left operating, it could be colonized by a more patient
replicator willing to live on the leavings. And the second-wave replicator
could travel by radio, and thus easily keep up with the frontier. All the
second-wave replicator has to do is induce the frontier replicator to leave
a tiny fraction of the oasis unused.
--CarlF
Received on Tue Dec 16 15:59:15 1997
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