Jeff Davis wrote:
>http://alumni.engin.umich.edu/~fritx/Ftlessay/essay.html
>"civilization or a cooperative group of civilizations would almost certainly
>have spanned the galaxy. Once such a pattern of galactic community takes
>hold, it is self reinforcing as it has an inherent survival value (32).
>Cooperative pooling of resources generally produces a more efficient use of
>the resources. It can be seen in Earths ecosystem, both
>biologically and sociologically, that cooperative behavior is reinforced."
Biology only displays limited cooperation. If trees could cooperate they would
not have to grow so tall. If plants could cooperate animals would not exist.
Humans display more cooperation, but display many notable cooperation failures.
I continue to be disappointed that those who advocate this galactic
civilization
view do not even address the biggest puzzles it presents: Why doesn't that
civilization intercept more that 1% of the light from each star? Why don't
they use the mass from the stars to build things? These aren't cooperation
issues. Making full use of the resources at a star doesn't threaten life
at other stars. So why don't they do it?
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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