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The energy requirement to send a life destroying device to a far away planet might be much less than the energy requirement to send colonizers. That may be the

• Causality1 5y ago
  If you can send a weapon you can probably send some kind of Von Neumann probe with genetic and cultural data to create a seed colony
  • syops 5y ago
    I don’t see why that necessarily follows and I don’t see why one would want to send such a probe. It does nothing for me if I can send a probe to start humanity on another planet when I have no connection to said planet and won’t be able to see the result or have a connection to that colony. In the dark forest view one would never seed such a colony as they will quickly become competitors.
    • Causality1 5y ago
      You don't think species chauvinism is a thing? If I had to lose an interstellar war and be wiped out I'd prefer it to be a human offshoot doing it. At least that way my species survives.
      • syops 5y ago
        In the dark forest view it’s best to just kill off the opponent and not replace them with a potential new opponent.
  • wonderwonder 5y ago
    Not really, the weapon does not need to slow down. If its just a big enough chunk of rock that is aimed at a planet and it speeds up the whole way reaching some impressive fraction of the speed of light before impact, the only hard part is the math to aim it. We are reasonably close now to being able to strap some engines on an chunk of rock and send it on its way randomly in one direction. We are very far away from being able to start a seed colony in another solar system.