3 ms·
There was a quote yesterday in HN (either here or through wiki) saying it would take 500,000 years for von Neumann probes to spread throughout the Galaxy. Not m
by robbiep 10y ago
There was a quote yesterday in HN (either here or through wiki) saying it would take 500,000 years for von Neumann probes to spread throughout the Galaxy. Not meaningfully different on cosmic timescales, but still.
Also, your thought on the probes travelling behind the light front implies that they are going to be travelling at relativistic speeds. Is that realistic?
- danieltillett 10y agoYes they could be travelling just under the speed of light if the probes are very small and they are being accelerated by an energy source (say laser) at the origin.
- robbiep 10y agoBut then it needs to break away (and actually brake) at the next system, replicate at outrageous speeds, and fire a bunch more at a heap more stars
- danieltillett 10y agoIf they are sent as a swarm you could bounce the laser off one to slow a second. This way you would not need to transport fuel. Also since you are aiming at stars you could use a hub and spoke model which would speed up the takeover process since you could bypass the build stage for most stars.
- robbiep 10y agoCool. Interesting. Thanks for your thoughts