Nornagest comments on Subjective Relativity, Time Dilation and Divergence - Less Wrong

14 Post author: jacob_cannell 11 February 2011 07:50AM

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Comment author: Nornagest 11 February 2011 11:55:30PM 0 points [-]

I don't have the astrophysics background to say for sure, but if subjective time is a function of total computational resources and computational resources are a function of energy input, then you might well get more subjective time out of a highly luminous supernova precursor than a red dwarf with a lifetime of a trillion years. Existential risk isn't going to be seen in the same way in a CPU-bound civilization as in a time-bound one.

Comment author: LukeStebbing 12 February 2011 12:06:34AM 1 point [-]

If computation is bound by energy input and you're prepared to take advantage of a supernova, you still only get one massive burst and then you're done. Think of how many future civilizations could be supercharged and then destroyed by supernovae if only you'd launched that space colonization program first!