Robin Hanson wrote a paper wondering if the first wave might not already have passed by, and what we see around us is merely the left-over resources. If that were the case, AI aliens might not find it worthwhile to re-colonise, but still want to take down any other powerful optimisation systems that arose. Even if it was too late to stop them appearing, the sooner it could interrupt the post-singularity growth the better, from its perspective.
Then it would’ve been trivial to leave at least one nanomachine and a radio detector in every solar system, which is all it takes to wipe out any incipient civilizations shortly after their first radio broadcast.
It would be trivial to transform all the matter in every solar system reached, to some useware for the sender and not to bother with the possible future civilizations there, at all.
Wow, one could write a story about a civilization of beings who find coherent radio-frequency radiation extremely painful (for instance), because of precisely this artificial selection.
Re: “Robin Hanson wrote a paper wondering if the first wave might not already have passed by, and what we see around us is merely the left-over resources.”
What − 4 billion years ago?!? What happened to the second wave? Why did the aliens not better dissipate the resources to perform experments and harvest energy, and then beam the results to the front? This hypothesis apparently makes little sense.
There are mountains of untapped resources lying around. If there were intelligent agents in the galaxy 4 billion years ago, where are their advanced descendants? There are no advanced descendants—so there were likely no intelligent agents in the first place.
It might be that what looks like a lot of resources to us is nothing compared to what they need. Imagine some natives living on a pacific island, concluding that, because there’s loads of trees and a fair bit of sand around, there can’t be any civilisations beyond the sea, or they would want the trees for themselves.
We might be able to test this by working out the distribution of stars, etc. we’d expect from the Big Bang.
If Robin is right, we’d expect their advanced descendants to be hundreds of light years away, heading even further away.
These are space-faring aliens we are talking about. Such creatures would likely use up every resource—and forward energy and information to the front, using lasers, with relays if necessary. There would be practically nothing left behind at all. The idea that they would be unable to utilise some kinds of planetary or solar resource—because they are too small and insignificant—does not seem remotely plausible to me.
Remember that these are advanced aliens we are talking about. They will be able to do practically anything.
Robin Hanson wrote a paper wondering if the first wave might not already have passed by, and what we see around us is merely the left-over resources. If that were the case, AI aliens might not find it worthwhile to re-colonise, but still want to take down any other powerful optimisation systems that arose. Even if it was too late to stop them appearing, the sooner it could interrupt the post-singularity growth the better, from its perspective.
Then it would’ve been trivial to leave at least one nanomachine and a radio detector in every solar system, which is all it takes to wipe out any incipient civilizations shortly after their first radio broadcast.
It would be trivial to transform all the matter in every solar system reached, to some useware for the sender and not to bother with the possible future civilizations there, at all.
Wow, one could write a story about a civilization of beings who find coherent radio-frequency radiation extremely painful (for instance), because of precisely this artificial selection.
Yes, you’re right. The only reason it would tolerate life/civilisation for so long is if it was hiding as well.
Re: “Robin Hanson wrote a paper wondering if the first wave might not already have passed by, and what we see around us is merely the left-over resources.”
What − 4 billion years ago?!? What happened to the second wave? Why did the aliens not better dissipate the resources to perform experments and harvest energy, and then beam the results to the front? This hypothesis apparently makes little sense.
The first wave might have burnt too many resources for there to be a second wave, or it might go at a much slower rate.
link
Edit: link formatting
Um, that link is to a string quartet version of an Oasis song. It is quite good but I’m pretty sure that isn’t the link you meant to give.
Thanks, Fixed. I better check the link other link I posted, actually.
It’s the new Rickrolling, except with better music.
There are mountains of untapped resources lying around. If there were intelligent agents in the galaxy 4 billion years ago, where are their advanced descendants? There are no advanced descendants—so there were likely no intelligent agents in the first place.
It might be that what looks like a lot of resources to us is nothing compared to what they need. Imagine some natives living on a pacific island, concluding that, because there’s loads of trees and a fair bit of sand around, there can’t be any civilisations beyond the sea, or they would want the trees for themselves.
We might be able to test this by working out the distribution of stars, etc. we’d expect from the Big Bang.
If Robin is right, we’d expect their advanced descendants to be hundreds of light years away, heading even further away.
These are space-faring aliens we are talking about. Such creatures would likely use up every resource—and forward energy and information to the front, using lasers, with relays if necessary. There would be practically nothing left behind at all. The idea that they would be unable to utilise some kinds of planetary or solar resource—because they are too small and insignificant—does not seem remotely plausible to me.
Remember that these are advanced aliens we are talking about. They will be able to do practically anything.