Re: Evolution and "I"

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Tue, 3 Sep 1996 08:03:39 +0200 (MET DST)


On Mon, 2 Sep 1996, Eric Watt Forste wrote:

> What about Dyson's work on the infinite survivability of sophontic life
> in an indefinitely expanding, cooling universe? It's been a long time
> since I read this, and I haven't read Tipler's recent book yet either,
> but it doesn't seem to me that making an assumption of the possibility of
> infinite computation settles the question one way or the other.

Tipler claims beings in the Dyson scenario will not be able to build or
integrate more memory fast enough, due to the expansion of the universe.
I do not claim to understand this completely, but I think we need to take
a look at this problem.

> And then there's always the possibility advocated by the Alfvenite
> steady-state heretics.

This kind of universe is probably the kindest to unbounded expansion and
development (despite the big antimatter clouds; energy = yum yum!). But it
gets into serious Fermi-paradox trouble.

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