jhuffman comments on One possible issue with radically increased lifespan - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Spectral_Dragon 30 May 2012 10:24PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 31 May 2012 07:07:31AM 24 points [-]

If your civilization expands at a cubic rate through the universe, you can have one factor of linear growth for population (each couple of 2 has exactly 2 children when they're 20, then stop reproducing) and one factor of quadratic growth for minds (your mind can go as size N squared with time N). This can continue until the accelerating expansion of the universe places any other galaxies beyond our reach, at which point some unimaginably huge superintelligent minds will, billions of years later, have to face some unpleasant problems, assuming physics-as-we-know-it cannot be dodged, worked around, or exploited.

Meanwhile, PARTY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MILKY WAY! WOO!

Comment author: shminux 31 May 2012 07:22:31PM 0 points [-]

This can continue until the accelerating expansion of the universe places any other galaxies beyond our reach, at which point some unimaginably huge superintelligent minds will, billions of years later, have to face some unpleasant problems, assuming physics-as-we-know-it cannot be dodged, worked around, or exploited.

Due to my innate, if misguided, belief in the fair universe, I hope that everyone can get their own baby universe to nucleate at will. The mechanism has been proposed before:

The bubble universe model proposes that different regions of this inflationary universe (termed a multiverse) decayed to a true vacuum state at different times, with decaying regions corresponding to "sub"- universes not in causal contact with each other and resulting in different physical laws in different regions which are then subject to "selection", which determines each region's components based upon (dependent on) the survivability of the quantum components within that region. The end result will be a finite number of universes with physical laws consistent within each region of spacetime.

All these "unimaginably huge superintelligent minds" have to do is to control this process of bubbling.

Comment author: jhuffman 01 June 2012 07:37:23PM -1 points [-]

This "mechanism" provides no facility for spontaneous generation of new matter and energy resources.