There are many examples of self replicating automata that stay just the same and don't evolve or change. The simple game of life introduced many years ago in scientific american is an example. The first example of these machines won't be capable of star travel so I think the beserker analogy is a bit off. I'm talking about limited machines to do a task (e.g. gather resources and build human habitats, power stations, etc., but limit numbers to be scaled to available resources). While I don't worry about our ability to limit these automata, and to put in a hard wired switch, obviously someone could also build them without the switch and without limitations. In that case you do have the grey goo problem of nanomachines scaled up.
Maybe ultimately that's why we don't find any aliens. As knowledge grows and leverage of single individuals correspondingly grows (e.g. 1 guy launching a nuclear weapon vs 1 guy with a club), maybe it becomes impossible forestall self anihilation.
Space/Science » in reply to Just a Berserker thought...
Self replicating doesn't mean it has to evolve
The whole thread (73 posts)
- Cultivating life on Earth and elsewhere.
- SEND COMPOST n/t
- Don't make it too complicated.
- Most colonization has been done so that people can prosper
- re: The time factor
- I believe you're absolutely correct.
- re: Cultivating life on Earth and elsewhere.
- Terraforming socialistic?
- Tired of people implying technology is bad or humans are bad for using it
- Who needs von Neumann machines?