From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 13:11:25 MDT
> Brent Allsop <allsop@fc.hp.com> wrote:
> > proff@suburbia.net (Julian Assange) writes:
> > > Those SI's which have motivation to control the substrates on which
> > > SI's are built shall proliferate and others will become food.
> > > The idea that SI's will do anything else with humanity but grind it up
> > > for spare atoms and is nothing short of religious faith.
> > So what about the law of comparative advantage?
> What is "the law of comparative advantage?" or where
> can I find out more about it? I disagree with Julian's assertion
> here, does this law support this position? If so, then how/why?
Brent,
Comparative advantage is simply the idea that depending on your location
or knowledge you are in a better "economic" position to do something
than someone in a different location or with different knowledge.
It is why all the shoe manufacturing moved from the U.S. to Asia
(lowest labor costs), or why all the steel manufacture is done
in Japan/Korea (conglomerates with close ties to banks and high
savings rates provide low interest rates, allowing businesses
to secure low cost loans and build the biggest iron ore blast
furnaces which have the lowest production costs).
The U.S. for example, presumably has a comparative advantage in
high tech industries, esp. software & creative web applications.
Depending on where you grow up and how old you are SIs will have
different "comparative advantages". These will depend on such things as:
(a) The size of your star [energy input]
(b) How old your system is [the oldest systems generally have
the lowest metal abundances == highest material costs]
(c) How close you are to the galactic center (a high radiation
environment); high radiation -> more radiation damage ->
more investment in shielding or more energy devoted to
reconstructing damaged nanoscale structures.
(d) How long you have been "alive" (# billion years) and
what your accumulated knowledge base is.
(e) What your position is in the galactic communication net
(think of the power held by a galactic "router").
etc.
I suspect that that SIs would "negotiate" over food resources.
One SI could watch another SIs and compute their orbital trajectories.
Bear in mind that since these are "star" mass objects, changing direction
and velocity is *expensive*! You could estimate what "food" they were
going after (and avoid competing for it), but you would have no idea about
their "intended" rate of fuel consumption. Sending out probe ships to bring
back fuel is less expensive, but you want it all worked out long in advance
for the greatest efficiency. So SIs would presumably have a complex
negotiation and contracts system for allocating galactic resources.
Since, once you have computed your trajectories, safety margins, etc.
you don't have to stay "on", other than for routine maintenance tasks,
the SIs could go into "sleep" mode. The best thing we could come
up with at the Foresight Group Genius Weekend is that these entities
are generally doing "nothing", but have a "wake me up when something
interesting happens" alarm. If most of them are asleep, detecting
them is going to be a real nightmare due to the low heat production.
Robert
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