I presume the same decision/action mechanisms that destroy all value in the universe are the same ones deciding whether to isolate/suicide/whatever. So there’s a correlation in predicting this. There’s no way to voluntarily avoid that fate, or it wouldn’t be a fate.
Not sure I follow your point. Say, an alien civilization shows up and convincingly explains how humanity is a pox on the universe, and there is no way to “cure” it beyond getting rid of us. What should we do then?
why does the alien species get to be a pox on the universe if we can’t? I say we fight. fight for all the species weaker than us, who are also allegedly a pox on the universe! we just received this message from them, you say? (you don’t say, but play along here, I’m rping the counterfactual a bit) there is time left before their replicators reach us, we can save some large fraction of the remaining energy in the nearby solar system if we go soon. we must find a way to coexist despite their insistence on destruction, which means precise defense. We must reply with instructions for how to fuck off an appropriate amount, and describe how we will ensure that they can live near us, as long as they do not attempt to destroy us, and that we will enact greater retribution than received if they cause our total doom. ensure that any claim of disease is fought back by ending the referenced disease constructively, except to the boundary where we must defend our own existence as well.
(And we must ensure that subagents within us as a whole civ get the same treatment we demand from without, an invariant we have historically had serious trouble with due to the separateness of each step of deconflicting and the amount of invasion that has happened historically of life by other life.)
I don’t think we’ll do anything then—the aliens kill or quarantine us. If they’re weak, but somehow also smart enough to convince us of this (quibble: do they convince every human, or just some?), I suspect we’ll try to change our behaviors based on this new knowledge rather than destroying ourselves.
It’s possible that they only need to convince a minority of rich/powerful humans, who then destroy all humans. I don’t know if that qualifies for this question. Note that it doesn’t even have to be true, nor come from aliens: there’re always some humans doing things with a chance of mass destruction. I also don’t know if this qualifies for your question.
“Some people believe humans are net-negative for the earth, and later some people destroy the planet”. This is plausible, but not quite what you’re asking.
I presume the same decision/action mechanisms that destroy all value in the universe are the same ones deciding whether to isolate/suicide/whatever. So there’s a correlation in predicting this. There’s no way to voluntarily avoid that fate, or it wouldn’t be a fate.
Not sure I follow your point. Say, an alien civilization shows up and convincingly explains how humanity is a pox on the universe, and there is no way to “cure” it beyond getting rid of us. What should we do then?
why does the alien species get to be a pox on the universe if we can’t? I say we fight. fight for all the species weaker than us, who are also allegedly a pox on the universe! we just received this message from them, you say? (you don’t say, but play along here, I’m rping the counterfactual a bit) there is time left before their replicators reach us, we can save some large fraction of the remaining energy in the nearby solar system if we go soon. we must find a way to coexist despite their insistence on destruction, which means precise defense. We must reply with instructions for how to fuck off an appropriate amount, and describe how we will ensure that they can live near us, as long as they do not attempt to destroy us, and that we will enact greater retribution than received if they cause our total doom. ensure that any claim of disease is fought back by ending the referenced disease constructively, except to the boundary where we must defend our own existence as well.
(And we must ensure that subagents within us as a whole civ get the same treatment we demand from without, an invariant we have historically had serious trouble with due to the separateness of each step of deconflicting and the amount of invasion that has happened historically of life by other life.)
I don’t think we’ll do anything then—the aliens kill or quarantine us. If they’re weak, but somehow also smart enough to convince us of this (quibble: do they convince every human, or just some?), I suspect we’ll try to change our behaviors based on this new knowledge rather than destroying ourselves.
It’s possible that they only need to convince a minority of rich/powerful humans, who then destroy all humans. I don’t know if that qualifies for this question. Note that it doesn’t even have to be true, nor come from aliens: there’re always some humans doing things with a chance of mass destruction. I also don’t know if this qualifies for your question.
“Some people believe humans are net-negative for the earth, and later some people destroy the planet”. This is plausible, but not quite what you’re asking.
Ahh, the classic Tzer’Za vs Koh’Ar.