Re: >H RE: Present dangers to transhumanism

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 09:34:21 -0500

"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> No, but others should to my thinking. I can only reach perhaps
> four conclusions in thinking about [S]ETI:
> (a) It is very difficult for life to get started and evolve to
> technological civilizations.
> (b) SIs evolve to the point of:
> benevolence|caretaking|indifference|quiescence.
> (c) We are seeing our [local] universe at a *very* unique
> time-point (before the SIs have consumed all the power sources).
> (d) The path to SIs is universally fatal.

So then why aren't the aliens here already? Equipped with nanotechnology, they sweep from star to star at slower-than-light speeds, engaging in Dysoneering and playing Culture to primitive cultures, and run out of stars in any given galaxy in, say, less than a million years. No spacetime engineering; that's a Power's game.

Where are they?

Don't tell me they *all* had Singularities. *Some* races, out of all the starry sky, will have the temperament and inclination and discipline to avoid it - hiveminds, for example.

-- 
           sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
        http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS           Typing in Dvorak          Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians   Heading for Singularity   There Is A Better Way