Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Godbots and replicators

re: Godbots and replicators

"Godbot" is a useful term, and I'd say that replicators and nanotech generically embody that implication/promise of unlimited abilities. (I almost said "power", but that could be confused with the next part....)

As for energy, first cut it may seem to be a separate subject. But then, if you have Godbots and access to raw material, you can begin construction of devices to harness ever-greater amounts of energy. Niven Rings and Dyson Spheres come to mind. e=mc2...mastery of matter and energy go hand-in-hand.

Or is energy a resource that can't be (or shouldn't be) regulated.


"should" or "shouldn't" is a political question. Disregarding what I said about using replicators to harness energy, energy could be a natural monopoly, and then society has to decide how to deal with the monopoly. In the bleak scenario, the power of wealth could be enforced by artificial energy monopolies; there will always be people who want power over others and would want to block something as egalitarian as unlimited matter or unlimited energy.

A lot depends, too, on the available energy technology. It's easier to monopolize energy if it has to be distributed from a few central points. But what if somebody comes up something like a small fusion reactor, or little zero-point-energy units, that can be replicated and distributed? Seems like it might be hard to keep that cat in the bag.

could we even stand to be near each other?


That's sounds something like the society Asimov described in the Robot series. Basically his robots were a flavor of Godbot that gave the citizens vast powers. They ended up living on isolated estates, one human per estate surrounded by armies of robots, and couldn't bear to be near each other in the flesh. I guess his point, and yours, is that unless human nature improves as much as technology, we might be hosed. Or maybe we'll do what we've always done before: As one group or individual acquired greater power to destroy, we invented more powerful defense. An arms race unto the end of time.

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