3 ms·
>energy expenditure and timescales that are the problem Feels like that's anthropomorphizing human motivations (which Q at at some level was written to embody)
by dirtyid 4y ago
>energy expenditure and timescales that are the problem
Feels like that's anthropomorphizing human motivations (which Q at at some level was written to embody). IMO even for humans, not really an issue, wealthy countries spends fraction of discretionary budget to entertain long term projects. Last month Switzerland just commited 20B/3% of GDP on nuclear waste storage. Frankly, it could just be passing hobby of the nephew of some K1-2 civ energy sheikh sending out off the shelf grey goo genocide drones from his local cosmic mart for clout. Space twitch chat asked him to do it, and they do because it's a nonchalant activity, they're not thinking 1 minutes into the future let alone 100,000 years. They're not spending entire cycles of local sol energy to shoot expensive relativistic kill vehicles. They're spending pocket credits for a laugh, and 100,000 years later trillions of organisms end up dying. I think part of charm is recognizing the potential for lonewolf /small group of actors to be more dangerous than ever as societies move up tech tree.
- jonathankoren 4y agoI’ve already done the math about how hard it is to chuck a relativistic rock. Assuming solar output, you could arguably maybe do it as a Kardashev I, but it’s more a Kadashev II thing. It gets harder if you find yourself born around a common red dwarf. If Zaphod Beeblebrox is chucking asteroids for lolz, while he waits for Slartibartfast to finish building a new pleasure planet (with space blackjack, and three boobed Martian hookers from Total Recall no doubt), we’re dealing with residents of Mount Olympus, with Zaphod playing the role of Zeus. Come to think of it. That would certainly make the ancient alien conspiracies more entertaining —- and more terrifying.