Re: overpopulation - more
Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Wed, 08 Jul 1998 11:12:30 +0000
At 10:40 AM 7/7/98 -0700, Robin wrote:
>I disagree that upload copying is so drastic that any outcome is plausible.
>A virtue of the Malthusian analysis is exactly that as long as the physically
>possible population growth rates are high enough, the outcome is insensitive
>to just how high. The actual growth rate is determined by other things.
By `outcome' I had in mind the impact on the world of the new technologies
of self-replication. I can easily imagine a range of methods which differ
excruciatingly in their impact. You might need an expensive supercomputer
to upload into. Or maybe a classy 2025 PC will do, and say 10 percent of
the literate population run off a xox to keep on their belt. Or maybe
Drextech is needed, but that allows a thousand matchbox sized xoxes to be
produced as cheaply as one. Or maybe *major* Drextech allows it all to be
done into brains the size of grains of sand, and costing no more than sand
(but also no more conspicuous or energy hungry - until they start *doing
stuff* to the world).
Or am I missing your point?
Damien Broderick