Thanks for the links! My intuition was that space is big enough that global coordination isn’t always needed to avoid basic failures like collisions but I definitely do need to do more reading/thinking/modeling to figure out how valid that intuition is.
Does anyone have a link handy related to complexity of coordinating Earth’s satellites?
Earth has fewer than 10^4 satellites. Taking apart Mercury over year-like timescales would mean enough equipment to remove a thousand tonnes of rock and metal per hour in every square metre.
I’m sure a superintelligence can find a way to do that, but I’m pretty sure that the optimal solution won’t be a flock of duck-sized probes nibbling it to death, no matter how numerous.
Thanks for the links! My intuition was that space is big enough that global coordination isn’t always needed to avoid basic failures like collisions but I definitely do need to do more reading/thinking/modeling to figure out how valid that intuition is.
Does anyone have a link handy related to complexity of coordinating Earth’s satellites?
Earth has fewer than 10^4 satellites. Taking apart Mercury over year-like timescales would mean enough equipment to remove a thousand tonnes of rock and metal per hour in every square metre.
I’m sure a superintelligence can find a way to do that, but I’m pretty sure that the optimal solution won’t be a flock of duck-sized probes nibbling it to death, no matter how numerous.