Re: Fermi "Paradox"

From: Wei Dai (weidai@weidai.com)
Date: Mon Aug 04 2003 - 17:04:05 MDT

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    On Sun, Aug 03, 2003 at 07:55:57AM -0700, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
    > Marvin Minsky suggested to Dyson ~30+ years ago at one of
    > the U.S.-USSR SETI conferences that advanced civilizations
    > would seek to approach the coolest temperature possible --
    > ideally the background temperature of the universe (~3 deg. K) [1].
    > This is because thermodynamically it is the most efficient.

    As I've mentioned before on this list, the coolest heat sink available
    is not intergalactic space, but black holes. The implication is that
    advanced civilizations should live near black holes. See
    http://www.weidai.com/black-holes.txt.

    I would like to hear more about why you believe all advanced
    civilizations will move out of evolutionary regimes. And also why, once
    they do, they won't be able to find a way to ensure the friendliness of
    their offspring. I asked this question about a year ago (see
    http://www.extropy.org/exi-lists/archive/0205/106121.html), but you
    never answered.

    You mention the fact that the Europeans and the Japanese are having
    falling fertility rates. Why is this happening? Is it an accident
    unique to the human species that richer societies do less reproduction,
    or can we expect the same of other intelligent beings?



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