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0 pointswickedlogic9y ago0 comments

For those who end up googling anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-FU8VPoOc (Michio Kaku: The von Neumann Probe (A Nano Ship to the Stars)

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Teever9y ago

If you found the above clip interesting and would like to learn more about the implications of such craft I highly recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTfuI-9jIo video.

The presentation covers the viability of constructing Von Neumann probes for colonizing the entire universe and illustrates the feasibility of it with a few different technological scenarios.

All in all it seems feasible and the implications of that are enormous.

kbenson9y ago

Which is yet more evidence in support of a great filter.

Teever9y ago

Perhaps, but it still doesn't answer the most important question of the great filter idea and that is 'which side of the filter are we on?'

I think another possibility worthy of serious consideration given the implication of the presentation I linked above is the existance of many bracewell probes[1] in our solar system.

If an alien civilization has the capability of seeding the universe with spacecraft it's definitely not a stretch that they would burrow them inside an asteroid to conduct subtle observations of noteworthy planets.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe

kbenson9y ago

> which side of the filter are we on?

Well, since we can never know that for sure (even if we identify a filter, is it the filter? Is there more than one?), the best we can do is try to move forward and make it increasingly unlikely that the things we think are candidates to being a filter can effect us. First and foremost, get off-planet, which brings us full circle to Musk, who is on record as stating he started SpaceX to spur Mars colonization.

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Teever9y ago

If you found the above clip interesting and would like to learn more about the implications of such craft I highly recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTfuI-9jIo video.

The presentation covers the viability of constructing Von Neumann probes for colonizing the entire universe and illustrates the feasibility of it with a few different technological scenarios.

All in all it seems feasible and the implications of that are enormous.

kbenson9y ago

Which is yet more evidence in support of a great filter.

Teever9y ago

Perhaps, but it still doesn't answer the most important question of the great filter idea and that is 'which side of the filter are we on?'

I think another possibility worthy of serious consideration given the implication of the presentation I linked above is the existance of many bracewell probes[1] in our solar system.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe

kbenson9y ago

> which side of the filter are we on?

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j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse