On Sun, 19 Dec 2004, Ben Goertzel wrote:
Hmmm...
Philip, I like your line of thinking, but I'm pretty reluctant to extend human logic into the wildly transhuman future...
Ben, this isn't so much about logic as it is about thermodynamics and it's going to be a very long time indeed before we can get around that one.
Phil's idea comes down to stating that the entity will need to exert energy to counteract local entropy in order to remain a coherent being.
I'd agree and state a trivial extension: The larger the sphere (in physical or some other space) of entropy that the entity is counteracting by expending energy, the greater it's chance of survival.
Consider humanity, let's assume we'll survive as a species long as the earth remains intact. We're still vulnerable from asteroids (admittedly a miniscule chance). If we extend our sphere of control of entropy into space (by building gizmos and whatsits to protect the earth), we further increase our chance of deep time survival. We've made a bubble of entropy control around the earth.
I'd also put forth this one: it's more energy efficient to ensure deep time longevity by reproduction than by protection.
There's a book called "the Robot's Rebellion" which espouses the view that humans are a deep-time survival mechanism for our DNA. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds right on target for this topic.
-Brad
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