3 ms·

> In other words, the finite nature of resources will ultimately pit one civilization against another as they all struggle to sustain their growth. I'm not sur

> In other words, the finite nature of resources will ultimately pit one civilization against another as they all struggle to sustain their growth. I'm not sure this constraint is so strict to force a strong competition for survival, given how vast the universe is. It seems to me this projecting our earth-bound mentality of limited resources to a whole different scale, where it may not really apply.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dragonelite 5y ago
Once we are earth loose we will be solar bound and human factions will fight for solar resources/domination.
- pharke 5y ago
  During star formation up to half of the matter can be rejected. During planetary formation a lot of fairly large bodies will be ejected, think moon size, along with a lot of smaller stuff too. Interstellar space probably has a lot more to offer than we generally think.
mikro2nd 5y ago
Precisely. IMHO any civilisation capable of interstellar travel (at any speed) has solved all necessary questions/problems of resource/energy acquisition and control and has no need to plunder the resources of others.
riffraff 5y ago
that is what I thought when I read the three-body problem. If you can manipulate space-time at the levels exposed in the book you can trivially build orbitals that will host trillions of beings and live in a post-scarcity society for millennia, after which your society is likely to disappear waaay before you run out of space and resources.
- yoz-y 5y ago
  Why or how would a post scarcity multi planetary or even multi stellar civilisation disappear? I agree that there is no need for plunder, but I don’t think highly advanced civilisations are in risk of extinction.
  - riffraff 5y ago
    Well, I don't know. It is just a common topic in fiction that great civilizations just fade out, and it seems reasonable to me. I do not believe the average individual would want to live forever, and at some point I feel the same would apply to civilizations. But for the sake of fun, I can recall some ideas from literature :) Maybe they evolve into higher states of being and leave our plane of existence. Maybe they stop reproducing and slowly die out. Maybe they reach a level of self-introspection where they believe continuing existing is pointless. Maybe they migrate to a more reliable virtual world in a sub-space computer. Maybe each individual gets its own universe. Maybe the society splinters over some trivial concepts and the old knowledge is lost when the machines start to fail. There's a lot of interesting things that can happen, let's hope we'll find out late enough :)
AmericanChopper 5y ago
According to this theory, the resource consumers in the universe are just as vast as the universe itself. At the end of the series the final resource constraint they deal with is running out of physical matter in the universe. Once the civilizations depicted in the book are done mastering survival in this universe, they all turn their attention to surviving the death of the universe. Stability simply moves the survival goalposts, and “we could probably last a few billion years” (or rephrased, “we will probably perish in a few billion years”) becomes the new existential crisis to solve.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dragonelite 5y ago

Once we are earth loose we will be solar bound and human factions will fight for solar resources/domination.

pharke 5y ago
During star formation up to half of the matter can be rejected. During planetary formation a lot of fairly large bodies will be ejected, think moon size, along with a lot of smaller stuff too. Interstellar space probably has a lot more to offer than we generally think.

mikro2nd 5y ago

Precisely. IMHO any civilisation capable of interstellar travel (at any speed) has solved all necessary questions/problems of resource/energy acquisition and control and has no need to plunder the resources of others.

riffraff 5y ago

that is what I thought when I read the three-body problem. If you can manipulate space-time at the levels exposed in the book you can trivially build orbitals that will host trillions of beings and live in a post-scarcity society for millennia, after which your society is likely to disappear waaay before you run out of space and resources.

yoz-y 5y ago
Why or how would a post scarcity multi planetary or even multi stellar civilisation disappear? I agree that there is no need for plunder, but I don’t think highly advanced civilisations are in risk of extinction.
- riffraff 5y ago
  Well, I don't know. It is just a common topic in fiction that great civilizations just fade out, and it seems reasonable to me. I do not believe the average individual would want to live forever, and at some point I feel the same would apply to civilizations. But for the sake of fun, I can recall some ideas from literature :) Maybe they evolve into higher states of being and leave our plane of existence. Maybe they stop reproducing and slowly die out. Maybe they reach a level of self-introspection where they believe continuing existing is pointless. Maybe they migrate to a more reliable virtual world in a sub-space computer. Maybe each individual gets its own universe. Maybe the society splinters over some trivial concepts and the old knowledge is lost when the machines start to fail. There's a lot of interesting things that can happen, let's hope we'll find out late enough :)

AmericanChopper 5y ago

According to this theory, the resource consumers in the universe are just as vast as the universe itself. At the end of the series the final resource constraint they deal with is running out of physical matter in the universe. Once the civilizations depicted in the book are done mastering survival in this universe, they all turn their attention to surviving the death of the universe. Stability simply moves the survival goalposts, and “we could probably last a few billion years” (or rephrased, “we will probably perish in a few billion years”) becomes the new existential crisis to solve.