Re: Galaxy brain problem
Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Mon, 11 Aug 1997 21:29:30 -0400
Geoff Smith wrote:
>
> On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Max M (Not More.. Not less) wrote:
>
> > Well I just found out that i have a little problem!
> >
> > When i get to be old and smart enough, I will incorporate my uploaded mind
> > into the fabric of a galaxy. So far so good. I think that wil be room
> > enough for my taste.
> >
> > The problem is though... where do I keep the backup?
>
> I've wondered this myself. Sure, galaxies seem plentiful now, but so did
> the great European forest, and now it is nothing more than a little patch
> of trees on the Polish/Russian border. In a competitive universe of
> galaxy brains, [....]
[SNIP]
I think we have a "minor" speed-of-light problem here.
Unless the galaxy brains find a way around relativity,
then a galaxy brain cannot coordinate it;s own
actions in less than roughly the time it takes to
traverse a galaxy twice, which is on the order of
100K years. I personally believe that any SI is essentially
incomprehensible to use mere humans, but if I were an SI, I'd
start by concentrating my available mass to increase my
effective interaction rate. My rate of increase of effective
capacity would be limited by the rate at which I could
concentrate matter. There is a trade-off here. I could
increase my accretion rate by increasing the acceleration of
the matter but (without some new physics) I would have to
expend reaction mass to increase my accretion rate. This mass
is lost, so while my accretion rate goes up, my ultimate
acquired mass goes down. If the SI can disciver some new physical
principles, it may be able to get around this by using a
gravity drive (or something.) However, unless it also sidesteps
relativity, galaxies can interact only on the million-year
timescale. I'm unwilling to speculate on the motivations and
actions of even a modest SI (say 10 times as smart as the
smartest human.) I'm a lot less willing to speculate on the
motivations and actions of a million-year-old galaxy brain.