Re: Galaxy brain problem

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 13:01:37 +0200 (MET DST)


On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Philip Witham wrote:

> The benefits of concentrating your galaxy's mass to the center, and the
> time involved in doing this, has a side effect: civilizations that
> started out near the core get the jump on us laggards out here in the
> boondocks! (shorter time to reach mass of complete galaxy, if you start
> from center). How annoying to start building your galactic empire only to
> learn you never had a chance.

Actually, I don't think this will hold since it will take you a few
hundred millions of years to move your star to the centre (given the
energies and physics currently known), while you can get there in
just a few millennia by travelling relativistically. So the center
civilizations doesn't seem to have any advantage except their
location at a natural Schelling point.

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