Warren Ockrassa wrote: > > > Suppose every civilization that could communicate becomes a homebody > > > because it likes gossip that takes less than eight million subjective > > > years for a response (the subjective time to talk with someone on > > > Alpha Centuri)? > > Kevin Street wrote: > > That's a very interesting idea, but it assumes that every civilization > > eventually becomes AI in nature. What about all the carbon based souls > > out there? > > Robert J. Chassell wrote: > Quick aside. Alpha Centauri is four lightyears away. Assuming a > conversation by radio, it would only be eight years' round trip, not > eight million. Radio waves propagate at lightspeed. Relativistic > mechanics don't enter the picture at all.
I believe Mr. Ockrassa was referring to the subjective time experienced by artificial intelligences that think one million times faster than we do. Hence, eight years becomes eight million subjective years. Come to think of it, the same line of thought might preclude interaction between AIs and humans. What kind of intelligence could stand to wait a million subjective seconds between each sentence? We might just be too slow and boring for machines to talk to. Kevin Street -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.10/25 - Release Date: 6/21/2005 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
