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It all started with self replicating genes, and later with ideas. A self replicator would quickly conquer the available resources and then have to face competit

It all started with self replicating genes, and later with ideas. A self replicator would quickly conquer the available resources and then have to face competition to continue to replicate. We're what happens after billions of years of copying and pasting information under adversarial conditions. Technology is also a self replicator in the space of ideas and artefacts, and it also has limited resources available.

Razengan 5y ago
> A self replicator would quickly conquer the available resources No it wouldn’t, if it didn’t want to. Have we conquered our own solar system yet? Or even our own planet? (You’d be surprised how much space is still unpopulated) Unless you meant a perfectly automated replicator, but even then, like viruses, they would have limitations and face resistance from natural forces and distance, logistics etc.
- Thiez 5y ago
  Most of our solar system is pretty difficult to get to for humans (the overwhelmingly vast majority of those living today will never be in space), so why do you consider it as an available resource? It's like criticizing bacteria in a petri dish for failing to use the ample resources of a nearby supermarket.
  - Razengan 5y ago
    > so why do you consider it as an available resource? It's like criticizing bacteria in a petri dish for failing to use the ample resources of a nearby supermarket. Congratulations! You just realized why the Fermi Paradox is self-assuming tripe, or the concept of “Von Neumann probes”
    - spiralx 5y ago
      I personally think it's the discovery of Proof of Work algorithms leading to dismantling of solar systems to build Dyson Spheres that capture a sun's energy to power miners. Possibly constructed by Von Neumann machines thinking about it :)
HPsquared 5y ago
In the space of ideas, a religion is a good example of a self-replicating idea.

Razengan 5y ago

> A self replicator would quickly conquer the available resources No it wouldn’t, if it didn’t want to. Have we conquered our own solar system yet? Or even our own planet? (You’d be surprised how much space is still unpopulated) Unless you meant a perfectly automated replicator, but even then, like viruses, they would have limitations and face resistance from natural forces and distance, logistics etc.

Thiez 5y ago
Most of our solar system is pretty difficult to get to for humans (the overwhelmingly vast majority of those living today will never be in space), so why do you consider it as an available resource? It's like criticizing bacteria in a petri dish for failing to use the ample resources of a nearby supermarket.
- Razengan 5y ago
  > so why do you consider it as an available resource? It's like criticizing bacteria in a petri dish for failing to use the ample resources of a nearby supermarket. Congratulations! You just realized why the Fermi Paradox is self-assuming tripe, or the concept of “Von Neumann probes”
  - spiralx 5y ago
    I personally think it's the discovery of Proof of Work algorithms leading to dismantling of solar systems to build Dyson Spheres that capture a sun's energy to power miners. Possibly constructed by Von Neumann machines thinking about it :)

HPsquared 5y ago

In the space of ideas, a religion is a good example of a self-replicating idea.