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This optimization of everything eventually leading to everything looking the same is one reason why I hope we don't meet extraterrestrial aliens, although stati
by r2_pilot 4y ago
This optimization of everything eventually leading to everything looking the same is one reason why I hope we don't meet extraterrestrial aliens, although statistically they likely exist, because they probably have similar problems they solve with similar technology, and if there's no special magic, I think many things they'd make would be similar to ours, which is mildly disheartening if you like science fiction as much as I do.
- chaostheory 4y agoWell, it shouldn’t matter to Star Trek fans then. Bad jokes aside, unless I missed it, the author forgot one major reason for everything being similar: cost and globalization ie everything is designed and made by respectively the same people and countries. If blandness is the price for people in developing countries being able to afford what we have, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
- mecsred 4y agoI think there's good reason to be optimistic about diversity at that scale. The environment shapes the direction your easiest path takes. Available material as well as the policies of an alien culture may be enough to send the local minima for optimizations way sideways. Who can say how it plays out on a multi-planet civilization scale, but I think we'd have enough reasons to be happy if we got there :)
- achenet 4y agodon't confuse the "best practices" of late stage capitalism with what life is capable of. The biosphere is, and has been for several hundred million years, incredibly diverse. CF: Amazon rainforest.
- r2_pilot 4y agoYes, but ultimately physics is physics, and it's hard to beat, say, an electric tea kettle for boiling water quickly, regardless of form factor surrounding the heating element.