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I always thought the notion of the "von Neumann probe" was odd. What is the motivation for a civilization to do this? It would be highly destructive, extremely
by jonshariat 6y ago
I always thought the notion of the "von Neumann probe" was odd. What is the motivation for a civilization to do this? It would be highly destructive, extremely destructive, and impossible to reverse. No one would set this in motion, right?
- trenchgun 6y agoWho wouldn't want to live forever?
- tomrod 6y agoIt good be accidental or natural, not driven by sapience. Bad code that evolves, or an AI, or similar. Even memetic viruses. Give Existence by David Brin a read some time.
- gamegoblin 6y agoConsider that, to a very alien intelligence, humanity could look a lot like von Neumann probes. If we stay on our current technological trajectory without destroying ourselves, we will spread out into the galaxy, consuming more and more resources in order to produce more copies of ourselves. From a totally alien point of view, we might be as intelligent, conscious, or sapient to them as trees are to us. That is, we might as well be bio-robots. Von Neumann probes.
- hindsightbias 6y agoAs one sci-fi author pointed out, it only takes 1 highly xenophobic species to mess up a galaxy once you have von Neumann capabilities. And that’s an optimistic view compared to Dark Forest thinking.