Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
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Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#2This isn't my field, but I see a huge gap between what in the abstract they say it would be feasible for us and what we're currently capable of. I mean, we're able to send space probes around, but self-replicating space probes and Dyson spheres feel on another level. Am I the only one?
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#3"And with this papyrus, we conclude that in five thousand years, mankind will finally build a staircase to the Moon"
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#4[dead]
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#5This isn't my field, but I see a huge gap between what in the abstract they say it would be feasible for us and what we're currently capable of. I mean, we're able to send space probes around, but self-replicating space probes and Dyson spheres feel on another level. Am I the only one?
Do we have anything that self-replicates physically?
Software, sure. I know 3D printer folks will sometimes 3D print parts for new machines. But nothing that fully replicates itself, right? Especially autonomously.
Maybe we'll see what a moon base can bring us.
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#6I recently saw an interesting criticism of this paper: That by the end stages of the disassembly of Mercury, the amount of heat generated would be so much as to melt the surface, calling into question whether the mass driver system could work at such a high rate.
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#7This isn't my field, but I see a huge gap between what in the abstract they say it would be feasible for us and what we're currently capable of. I mean, we're able to send space probes around, but self-replicating space probes and Dyson spheres feel on another level. Am I the only one?
Do we have anything that self-replicates physically? Software, sure. I know 3D printer folks will sometimes 3D print parts for new machines. But nothing that fully replicates itself, right? Especially autonomously. Maybe we'll see what a moon base can bring us.
Additionally, you also have to consider that a self-replicating space probe should be able to find, retrieve, and process the raw materials needed to build new probes on its own. A 3D printer can print some of its own parts, but with externally-provided material that it isn't able to produce on its own.
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#8Has someone answered why a civilization would send "von Neumann probes" or similar into space? It would take so long for any answers from those probes to arrive that there really doesn't seem much value in them.
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#9This isn't my field, but I see a huge gap between what in the abstract they say it would be feasible for us and what we're currently capable of. I mean, we're able to send space probes around, but self-replicating space probes and Dyson spheres feel on another level. Am I the only one?
Do we have anything that self-replicates physically? Software, sure. I know 3D printer folks will sometimes 3D print parts for new machines. But nothing that fully replicates itself, right? Especially autonomously. Maybe we'll see what a moon base can bring us.
Basically all of life is self replicating, physically.
Re: Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life (2013)
#10Has someone answered why a civilization would send "von Neumann probes" or similar into space? It would take so long for any answers from those probes to arrive that there really doesn't seem much value in them.
We don't know however "It would take so long" is an anthropomorphic assumption of time scale.