Re: question: receiving messages from powers

Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Mon, 08 Nov 1999 13:03:39 -0500

I'm not sure I understand you here, are you saying that you think any power can be assured of 100% control over it's own space? Perhaps that is a working definition of a power.

I just thought I might have a possible explanation for Fermi's paradox: the price of failure for contact, even at a very low risk, is much higher than any potential rewards. A power might have a few hours amusement studying earth people, but if this planet contains (unbeknowst to us) a hidden evil power that entraps such a visitor, this leads to the aforementioned hideous torture for eons.

Thanks,

-Mike

> This one is easy. Right now, attack is easier than defense; you can't
> stop a massed nuclear attack. Given nanotechnology, the inequality will
> get even worse. But in software, it seems to me that it's getting
> easier to defend then attack, and I certainly don't see Powers worrying
> about Trojan-horse attacks and the like. And it could be that under the
> ultimate laws of physics, defense is just easier than attack; once you
> have total control over local space, no external force can take it away
> from you.
>
> Leaving aside answers like "social contracts" and "convergent motivations".
> - --
> sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
> http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
> Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
> Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
>

--
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Michael Wiik
Principal
Messagenet Communications Research
Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants
http://messagenet.com
mwiik@messagenet.com
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