From: <Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
> Three orders of magnitude of difference gives a different species a
> chance to go sentient and then off-planet, in case we screw it up,
> so there *is* a difference between megayears and gigayears. (Though
> it does not make a lot of difference to us personally, then,
> admittedly, but I can't help rooting for a good case, so).
Thank you for pointing that out, 'gene.
(I guess you missed this when Greg Burch first posted it.)
It would make a big difference if it were 5 millions instead of 5
billions, except for that ol' singularity which lurks not 5 thousand, not
5 hundred... not even fifty... but just 5 years into the future. Whether
we screw it up or not, alien intelligence can take over for us. Okay,
everyone out of the meme pool. Time for some periodic maintenance.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
=====================
Useless hypotheses: consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind,
free will
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