Yes. After I figured this little theory out, I did some googling to find the first inventor. It seemed like such a logical idea, I couldn’t believe that I was the first to reason like this. This googling led me to Hanson’s paper. As you note, this paper has some ideas similar to mine. These ideas are very interesting on their own, but the similarity is superficial, so they do not really help answering any of my questions. This is not surprising, considering that these are physics and computer science rather than economics questions.
Later I found another, more relevant paper:
Thermodynamic cost of reversible computing
Not incidentally, this was written by Tomasso Toffoli, who coined the term ‘computronium’. But it still doesn’t answer my questions.
This is not surprising, considering that these are physics and computer science rather than economics questions.
Hanson’s paper is most useful for answering the question, ‘if civilizations could expand at light-speed, would they?’ There’s 2 pieces to the puzzle, the ability to do so and the willingness to do so.
As for the ability: are you not satisfied by general considerations of von Neumann probes and starwisps? Those aren’t going to get a civilization expanding at 0.9999c, say, but an average of 0.8 or 0.9 c would be enough, I’d think, for your theory.
Yes. After I figured this little theory out, I did some googling to find the first inventor. It seemed like such a logical idea, I couldn’t believe that I was the first to reason like this. This googling led me to Hanson’s paper. As you note, this paper has some ideas similar to mine. These ideas are very interesting on their own, but the similarity is superficial, so they do not really help answering any of my questions. This is not surprising, considering that these are physics and computer science rather than economics questions.
Later I found another, more relevant paper: Thermodynamic cost of reversible computing Not incidentally, this was written by Tomasso Toffoli, who coined the term ‘computronium’. But it still doesn’t answer my questions.
Hanson’s paper is most useful for answering the question, ‘if civilizations could expand at light-speed, would they?’ There’s 2 pieces to the puzzle, the ability to do so and the willingness to do so.
As for the ability: are you not satisfied by general considerations of von Neumann probes and starwisps? Those aren’t going to get a civilization expanding at 0.9999c, say, but an average of 0.8 or 0.9 c would be enough, I’d think, for your theory.