Re: Meta-Foxes (was: Fermi Paradox)

From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 20:35:45 MDT

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    On 7/26/2003, Robert Bradbury wrote:
    > > Imagine a field full of slow plump rabbits, munching on grass.
    > > Imagine a fox sitting ... meta-foxes ... only eat foxes. ...
    >
    >"why don't the meta-foxes eat the rabbits?"
    >
    >Because they don't have to. Neither the foxes, nor the meta-foxes
    >have to eat the rabbits. In my knowledge base its generally
    >accepted that eating plant protein sources rather than animal
    >protein sources is about an order of magnitude more efficient (in
    >terms of the raw energy resources that went into the protein
    >production). The foxes (and meta-foxes) would engineer themselves
    >to eat grass (if they were initially unable to do so).
    >Now I could be completely missing the point of this proposal.

    On Earth now carnivores can digest a wide range of meat, but not
    plants, and vegetarians are much more specialized in which plants
    they can eat. Since I agree with you that advanced civilizations
    should be flexible eaters, more like our carnivores, when creating
    a parable that draws on the right intuitions we have, I created a
    parable analogy with carnivores only. So in the analogy, there is
    no grass really. The meta-foxes can eat the foxes or the rabbits,
    but not the grass, just as advanced life can feed on other
    advanced life, or on stars/planets, but not really effectively
    on the sources of stars/planets.

    Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
    Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
    MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
    703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323



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