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A manifesto of a proud human bigot
Facts:
1) it is likely to be true that interstellar travel remains costly and slow
2) the technology required to destroy a planetary civilization is likely to get cheaper through time
3) such technology will become increasingly miniaturized (von Neumann machines)
4) given galactic timescales intelligence is likely to develop at vastly different times on different worlds (assuming it develops on different worlds at all)
5) the emergence of intelligent life is likely to be undectable until the development of radio, at such point the news will spread at the speed of light for some small number of hundreds of light years around the origin
Implications:
a) Interstellar trade will be limited to information exchange and contractual terms will be unenforceable
b) any planetary civilization will be a substantially greater threat to all other civilizations in its vicinity than an opportunity
c) most intelligent attempts to destroy an alien planetary civilization will be plausibly deniable
d) the combined lightspeed broadcast and physical reverse travel time between stars will remain longer than the elapsed time between the emergence of a detectable planetary civilization and its ability to destroy other planetary civilizations
e) the ethics of alien civilizations are deeply mysterious
Conclusions:
A) any reasonably developed civilization can destroy any other
B) by the time you see your neighbors and can deliver them a planet busting package, they will have developed to the point where they have seen you and can have launched a planet busting package
C) So, the only reasonable course is one of probabilistic deterrence
Proposal:
1) cease any active-seti efforts
2) increase research into miniaturized self-replicating machines
3) increase research into laser-propulsion, solar sails etc with the intent of delivering small colonies of killer self-replicating machines to all systems in the immediate neighborhood which may now or at any time in the future develop intelligent life. Until activated these should be essentially undetectable.
4) once those are in place, if you discover any technological species in the systems you have seeded, tell them that you have a gun to their head. Or, simply pull the trigger.
Facts:
1) it is likely to be true that interstellar travel remains costly and slow
2) the technology required to destroy a planetary civilization is likely to get cheaper through time
3) such technology will become increasingly miniaturized (von Neumann machines)
4) given galactic timescales intelligence is likely to develop at vastly different times on different worlds (assuming it develops on different worlds at all)
5) the emergence of intelligent life is likely to be undectable until the development of radio, at such point the news will spread at the speed of light for some small number of hundreds of light years around the origin
Implications:
a) Interstellar trade will be limited to information exchange and contractual terms will be unenforceable
b) any planetary civilization will be a substantially greater threat to all other civilizations in its vicinity than an opportunity
c) most intelligent attempts to destroy an alien planetary civilization will be plausibly deniable
d) the combined lightspeed broadcast and physical reverse travel time between stars will remain longer than the elapsed time between the emergence of a detectable planetary civilization and its ability to destroy other planetary civilizations
e) the ethics of alien civilizations are deeply mysterious
Conclusions:
A) any reasonably developed civilization can destroy any other
B) by the time you see your neighbors and can deliver them a planet busting package, they will have developed to the point where they have seen you and can have launched a planet busting package
C) So, the only reasonable course is one of probabilistic deterrence
Proposal:
1) cease any active-seti efforts
2) increase research into miniaturized self-replicating machines
3) increase research into laser-propulsion, solar sails etc with the intent of delivering small colonies of killer self-replicating machines to all systems in the immediate neighborhood which may now or at any time in the future develop intelligent life. Until activated these should be essentially undetectable.
4) once those are in place, if you discover any technological species in the systems you have seeded, tell them that you have a gun to their head. Or, simply pull the trigger.
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