3 ms·

I get your point, but I don't think this answers the question. The first part of the question is defining what it means to be 'worthwhile.' Information itself

I get your point, but I don't think this answers the question. The first part of the question is defining what it means to be 'worthwhile.' Information itself does not have inherent value. If you send a colony information on how to create an advance polymer, but the colony lacks a use for it, the requisite knowledge, the requisite tools, the requisite knowledge to craft the tools, or the requisite materials, your transmission isn't 'worth it'. You'd be better off not sending the information (possibly in favor of sending the requisite information). The second part of the question is 'How do we know what will be worthwhile in advance?' It's easy to look back X years and say "Yes, this information was worth carrying forward into the future." (On Earth, it's even easier, because carrying that information forward is dirt cheap.) It's a much harder problem to figure out what information is worth carrying forward at the time you have to make the decision and when the costs are much higher.

Swenrekcah 6y ago
That’s true. There would be a considerably higher bar for “worthwhile”. But I got to imagine that by the time interstellar trade would be an option, there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself.
- krapp 6y ago
  >there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself Trial and error might actually be faster depending on how long a round trip takes. Imagine waiting fifty years for the blueprints to arrive only to learn some packets got dropped along the way.

Swenrekcah 6y ago

That’s true. There would be a considerably higher bar for “worthwhile”. But I got to imagine that by the time interstellar trade would be an option, there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself.

krapp 6y ago
>there would be some very valuable blueprints of autofactories and other goods, operating systems and other software with centuries of real-world proofing, and other stuff you’d like to get without doing all the trial and error yourself Trial and error might actually be faster depending on how long a round trip takes. Imagine waiting fifty years for the blueprints to arrive only to learn some packets got dropped along the way.