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What would motivate a civilization to undertake such an experiment? A probe a 50,000 light years away would take 50,000 years to send back any meaningful inform
by blueblisters 6y ago
What would motivate a civilization to undertake such an experiment? A probe a 50,000 light years away would take 50,000 years to send back any meaningful information. Unless alien life-spans are significantly longer than humans, I would think this would probably not be funded by their science department.
- RobertoG 6y agoA probe of the sophistication of a Von Newman machine, that can reproduce, would be the alien in itself. A network of such probes would be a civilization.
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_Lifemaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_Lifemaker http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200203/0743435265___0.htm http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200203/0743435265___0.htm :-)
- RobertoG 6y agoThanks! I'm going to read it.
- sterlind 6y agoVon Neumann probes would be great at asteroid mining. If you just let the probes keep going rather than limiting their distance, they'd cover the 50k light years easily. Not much overhead on the civilization.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoThey spent 50000 years exploring space, we spent 50000 years waging wars. Who spent their time better?