Compare that to a wave of self replicating probes at near lightspeed reconfiguring all secured matter into computronium performing the desired operations? Seems like no contest.
I think the best argument in favour of this SETI virus is that you can really just do both. Nearly all the useful stuff will come from the self-replicating probes, but you might get a little extra out of the virus as well.
Not that it’s an important point of contention, but I don’t think so. If there are any other superintelligences out there (other than the sender) - even if fewer than there are civilizations in their vulnerable phase—they would still pose a serious threat to the signal-sending agent:
A signal travelling slightly ahead of the cavalry would be like a trumpet call announcing “here come the nanobots!”, giving the adversary time to prepare.
(Interestingly, our position in the outskirts of a galaxy / the less densily populated regions can count as weak evidence that such a cosmic chessgame exists, since otherwise due to the SSA we’d expect to find our home star cluster somewhere in the more densily packed areas.)
God I hate it when my comments become needlessly verbose, sorry … argh, and isn’t verbosity needless by definition?
A signal travelling slightly ahead of the cavalry would be like a trumpet call announcing “here come the nanobots!”, giving the adversary time to prepare.
Yes, but we better prepare for nanobots anyway. If they don″t come it’s just a bonus. It is wise to be prepared for an intergalactic war in any case. For the robots, for the small kinetic projectiles with a near light speed, for some artificial gamma ray bursts, for SETI attacks and for many more.
Then we should strike in all directions in the best tradition of a very benevolent colonist. To end all the space wars even before they relay start. As much as we can.
The aliens, who are extremely rare (as I think), had, have or will have the same dilemma, what may be another opportunity. Game theoretically speaking, we must do some calculations right now, it is already late and the OP’s article is a good one.
I actually don’t mind this length of comments (less is okay, but sometimes too vague, and starting at double that length it definitely feels like too much).
Overall, I see your point, but I think it depends on what kind of strategy the spreading superintelligence is using and on what wars would look like in general. For example, the universe probably mostly doesn’t resist, so it might be sending small “conversion” probes everywhere to expand as fast as possible. In that case, any actual opponent might be able to easily repel them and start getting ready to present a serious defence by the time any dedicated offensive force is sent, so the additional forewarning of having a signal travel slightly further ahead wouldn’t really change anything, and might prevent an opponent from emerging in the first place.
(On the other hand, maybe the conversion probes it sends are smart enough to detect any signal originating from their destination and stop flying/change course if it looks like it might resist. But maybe any superintelligence is on the lookout for extremely fast-travelling objects that behave like this and would notice anyway.)
I think the best argument in favour of this SETI virus is that you can really just do both. Nearly all the useful stuff will come from the self-replicating probes, but you might get a little extra out of the virus as well.
Not that it’s an important point of contention, but I don’t think so. If there are any other superintelligences out there (other than the sender) - even if fewer than there are civilizations in their vulnerable phase—they would still pose a serious threat to the signal-sending agent:
A signal travelling slightly ahead of the cavalry would be like a trumpet call announcing “here come the nanobots!”, giving the adversary time to prepare.
(Interestingly, our position in the outskirts of a galaxy / the less densily populated regions can count as weak evidence that such a cosmic chessgame exists, since otherwise due to the SSA we’d expect to find our home star cluster somewhere in the more densily packed areas.)
God I hate it when my comments become needlessly verbose, sorry … argh, and isn’t verbosity needless by definition?
Yes, but we better prepare for nanobots anyway. If they don″t come it’s just a bonus. It is wise to be prepared for an intergalactic war in any case. For the robots, for the small kinetic projectiles with a near light speed, for some artificial gamma ray bursts, for SETI attacks and for many more.
Then we should strike in all directions in the best tradition of a very benevolent colonist. To end all the space wars even before they relay start. As much as we can.
The aliens, who are extremely rare (as I think), had, have or will have the same dilemma, what may be another opportunity. Game theoretically speaking, we must do some calculations right now, it is already late and the OP’s article is a good one.
I actually don’t mind this length of comments (less is okay, but sometimes too vague, and starting at double that length it definitely feels like too much).
Overall, I see your point, but I think it depends on what kind of strategy the spreading superintelligence is using and on what wars would look like in general. For example, the universe probably mostly doesn’t resist, so it might be sending small “conversion” probes everywhere to expand as fast as possible. In that case, any actual opponent might be able to easily repel them and start getting ready to present a serious defence by the time any dedicated offensive force is sent, so the additional forewarning of having a signal travel slightly further ahead wouldn’t really change anything, and might prevent an opponent from emerging in the first place.
(On the other hand, maybe the conversion probes it sends are smart enough to detect any signal originating from their destination and stop flying/change course if it looks like it might resist. But maybe any superintelligence is on the lookout for extremely fast-travelling objects that behave like this and would notice anyway.)