den Otter writes:
>The nano-posthumans would all need to co-operate flawlessly
>(be like-minded to a high degree) to be effective against an entity
>that has the same computing power and mass, but a centralized
>decision-making system (i.e. it only has to make up its own
>mind).
This sounds like an argument for centralized economic planning, which has not been too popular lately.
>Furthermore, blunt methods like nuclear attack are
>much more likely to harm a microscopic creature than a
>planet-sized one; you could theoretically blow away half
>the JB's mass and it could still survive with its personality
>intact due to ample room for redundancy.
I thought the development of atomic bombs lead armies to avoid concentrating their troops beyond a certain level. And think of the scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where troops are told to spread out.
Also, redundancy seems just as easy for small creatures as for large.
Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-8614