Wild Ideas
hanson.gmu.edu
Wild Ideas
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Re: Wild Ideas
#2The Occulus Rift is basically the beginning of the Simulation
Re: Wild Ideas
#3The idea of living within a simulation is an odd one, assuming awareness and control over resources. Being somewhat defined by our limitations and then taking away limitations like memory, ability to learn new concepts ("Whoa, I know kung fu") doesn't actually sound like a lot of fun. And that's from someone who views life as a largely intellectual pursuit; it'd be super depressing for those who are defined by physical ability like athletes.
Re: Wild Ideas
#4Try this: we don't get alien visitors because space travel is prohibitively expensive. But communication is cheap. So you'd expect the sky to be filled with messages, maximally compressed and/or encrypted, and so indistinguishable from noise: background radiation.
Re: Wild Ideas
#5I have a "science-fictiony" idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet. The idea is this: If we can see light from planets thousands of light years away, then we can see the past. Once our telescopes are good enough to basically do a "google maps" zoom-in on other planets, we will be able to watche the past on other planets. But then, if we can ever watch our own Earth from a thousand light years away, then we can see what happened in the past. The missing link is for us to be able to travel faster than the speed of light so we can go far enough to view Earth's past.
While not "obvious", I still feel like others have probably thought of this idea. It could make a cool science fiction story.
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#6Migration to millions of star systems in 10,000 years? Speed of light says NO.
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#7On the Great Filter, there was a discussion here about an excellent essay on the matter by Nick Bostrom, which I summarized in a comment[1] and extended the thinking. Still haven't read the one linked this time.
Re: Wild Ideas
#8I have a "science-fictiony" idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet. The idea is this: If we can see light from planets thousands of light years away, then we can see the past. Once our telescopes are good enough to basically do a "google maps" zoom-in on other planets, we will be able to watche the past on other planets. But then, if we can ever watch our own Earth from a thousand light years away, then we can se…
In Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, they do this with another planet. It was destroyed, and they fly/transport/whatever a camera out so many lightyears from it, so they can see what happened.
Re: Wild Ideas
#9I have a "science-fictiony" idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet. The idea is this: If we can see light from planets thousands of light years away, then we can see the past. Once our telescopes are good enough to basically do a "google maps" zoom-in on other planets, we will be able to watche the past on other planets. But then, if we can ever watch our own Earth from a thousand light years away, then we can se…
Something similar to your idea is the basis for the Arthur C. Clark novel The Light of Other Days.
Re: Wild Ideas
#10I have a "science-fictiony" idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet. The idea is this: If we can see light from planets thousands of light years away, then we can see the past. Once our telescopes are good enough to basically do a "google maps" zoom-in on other planets, we will be able to watche the past on other planets. But then, if we can ever watch our own Earth from a thousand light years away, then we can se…
what if we could use the surface of other planets as mirrors to peer back at ours?