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Astro­nom­i­cal Waste

TagLast edit: Sep 25, 2020, 10:33 PM by Swimmer963 (Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg)

Astronomical waste is a term introduced by Nick Bostrom for the opportunities we’re losing out on by not colonizing the universe.

The universe is vast. There are many galaxies, each containing many stars. In a future with space colonization, each star could support a large population of people leading worthwhile lives. During any given year, we irrecoverably lose an amount of energy that could have powered a civilization like ours for many billions of years.

The prospect of advanced technology only makes the numbers more extreme. Such technology would make it possible to support far more, and better, lives with the same resources.

Bostrom notes that in a wide range of moral theories — in particular, those based on linear aggregation of value — considerations of astronomical waste outweigh all others.

If so much potential is lost every year, one could conclude that we should start colonization as soon as possible. But since the amount of resources available in total is much larger still than the amount lost in a year, a better utilitarian prescription is to minimize the risk of losing out on space colonization entirely. Bostrom calls this prescription “maxipok”, for the maximum probability of an OK outcome.

External links

See also

To re­duce as­tro­nom­i­cal waste: take your time, then go very fast

Stuart_ArmstrongJul 13, 2013, 4:41 PM
70 points
50 comments3 min readLW link

Beyond Astro­nom­i­cal Waste

Wei DaiJun 7, 2018, 9:04 PM
139 points
41 comments3 min readLW link

Astron­omy, Astro­biol­ogy, & The Fermi Para­dox I: In­tro­duc­tions, and Space & Time

CellBioGuyJul 26, 2015, 7:38 AM
61 points
22 comments1 min readLW link

Altru­ism Un­der Ex­treme Uncertainty

lsusrAug 27, 2021, 6:58 AM
37 points
9 comments2 min readLW link

The Astro­nom­i­cal Sacri­fice Dilemma

Matthew McRedmondMar 11, 2024, 7:58 PM
15 points
3 comments4 min readLW link

Is the po­ten­tial as­tro­nom­i­cal waste in our uni­verse too small to care about?

Wei DaiOct 21, 2014, 8:44 AM
91 points
17 comments2 min readLW link

A Pro­posed Ad­just­ment to the Astro­nom­i­cal Waste Argument

Nick_BecksteadMay 27, 2013, 3:39 AM
35 points
38 comments12 min readLW link

Ac­tu­al­ism, asym­me­try and extinction

MichaelStJulesJan 7, 2025, 4:02 PM
1 point
4 comments1 min readLW link
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