Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: amos@taux01.uucp (Amos Shapir) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Megascale engineering, part 3 Message-ID: Date: 21 Jun 89 02:37:06 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: National Semiconductor (IC) Ltd, Israel Home of the 32532 Lines: 34 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article <8906130723.AA21643@athos.rutgers.edu> hkhenson@cup.portal.COM writes: | Debate rages (that may be too strong a term) between the Saganites |and the Tiplerites. Carl Sagan and Co. hold the opinion that |technological life is fairly common, with radio capable civilizations |every few hundred light years. This school proposes vast listening |posts to eavesdrop. Frank Tipler points to the lack of any evidence |that our galaxy, or the universe at large, is inhabited by |technophiles. I have come to lean very strongly toward Tipler because |I think that before very many years go by *our* existence in this |particular part of the universe will become very obvious. Laser |cannons pushing light sails would be seen as obviously unnatural |beacons far across the universe. There's a third possibility - that noisy technologies such as radio transmission or laser canons are as short-lived as gaslight and steam power, soon to be replaced by quieter mechanisms. A 19th-century observer would have had a hard time looking for smoke as an indication of civilization... -- Amos Shapir amos@nsc.com National Semiconductor (Israel) P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel Tel. +972 52 522261 TWX: 33691, fax: +972-52-558322 34 48 E / 32 10 N (My other cpu is a NS32532) [Or gray goo did them all in. If true, it could be dangerous to explore, even if we miss gooing ourselves: astronauts land on a planet of bare rock, no apparent life forms, with oceans of odd gray fluid. They take samples, return home. Astronauts go into isolation, samples to labs in hermetically sealed containers. In the morning, the containers are empty; there are holes in the container bottoms, and the shelves, and the floor... --JoSH]