Re: The Extinction Challenge

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 13:59:34 -0700 (PDT)

GBurch1@aol.com writes:

> Not fair, Billy. If I can't use nanotech and at least minimal AI, I can't
> wipe out the target. WIth them, I think I can.

This doesn't address the original issue, as the agent which wiped out the civilisation would be still at large, free to wreak havoc upon its stellar surroundings. We might get wiped out by a Gray Goo event, or gobbled up by a malignant Singularity, but that still leaves the infectious Gray Goo autoreplicators free to be carried out of the system by solar wind (or evolving a faster means of travel), and the Blight reach out for neighbouring systems.

The restructured hole in the skies is still there. Now, on the other hand, there is some obvious technology (the equivalent of putting table salt and silverware into kitchen microwave) which makes your system go up on a GRB flare, that would be different. This still leaves room for interstellar probes escaping, however.