From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Tue Jun 11 2002 - 04:43:48 MDT
On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Hal Finney wrote:
> That's possible. OTOH the intergalactic spaces have less dust and gas
> so there would be fewer problems in travelling close to light speed.
I think the photonic pressure of the beam driving the probe sail would
clean up the travel corridor.
> Maybe part of the issue is, why is the civilization expanding? IMO we
Because it's the natural behaviour for uncorralled populations of
self-replicating agents in a three dimensional substrate. Isn't it
obvious?
> have to look beyond traditional reasons like population pressure from
> a 3% biological growth rate. With super-advanced technology, people
Why are we talking traditional biology in the context of expansive
species? Squishy stuff doesn't fare well in space.
> will reproduce exactly as fast as they desire. If a civilization is
1) people are irrelevant
2) no they won't, because anybody who stops reproducing and does not
spread into space is irrelevant in the cosmic picture
If total population growth is stalling it doesn't mean every subpopulation
growth is stalling (if we limit ourselves to monkeys).
> expanding, it's because they want to. It's because they believe in
> expansion, and they inherently value increasing their territory and
> their population.
Bacteria don't believe in anything in particular, yet bacterial lawns
spread just fine.
> These people believe that spreading life into a dead universe makes it a
> better place, and frankly I agree with them. Beings who have some such
> psychology will come to dominate the expansion, so this is the kind of
> attitude I see as driving the spread of life. They will make a strong
> effort to move into adjacent, dead galaxies and bring them to life.
The reasons don't really matter. Anyone who is not expansive is pretty
much invisible.
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