18.10 The Future of Life
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greater than the speed of light. The signal would take about four and a half years
to get to the nearest star system (Alpha Centuri). Fifth (the really hard part): At
the receiving end, have the sentient beings there reconstruct a clone of you from
the information received. 1 Advantage can be taken in the transmission process and
the reconstruction process of our prior knowledge of the general structures common
to all humans. (Note that the reconstructed version of you will need a number of
essential fungi, bacteria, and microscopic epidermal arthropods that we have come
to rely on in symbiotic relationships).
Now there are two of you in the Universe. Your clone 2 will not have your
blemishes, or your healed broken bones, but that, we suppose, is good! Some
societies will require you to sign a ‘vaporization agreement’ to limit the number
of your twins in the Universe.
18.10 The Future of Life
It appears that one of the essential elements of evolution is the presence of
competition between individual organisms and groups of organisms. If so, life forms
necessarily carry aggressive tendencies, either explicitly, or behind a veil covering
the primitive parts of their brain. The result is often a ‘we-they’ syndrome: A
polarization of populations based on perceived distinctions, with the evolutionary
purpose of enhancing and spreading those in the same group. The genes of
successful groups become more dominant.
If a particular life form evolves high intelligence with the associated increased
survivability, 3 technology may give that life form the ability to annihilate not just
other groups, but all life on the home planet. I.S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, 4 while
trying to estimate the number of life forms in the galaxy that might be able to
communicate with us, guessed that the lifetime of life forms, once that life form
had gained the knowledge and technology for planetary destruction, is about 100
years. They still estimated millions of planets in the Milky Way with life that could
send out radio waves to us.
1 Without parity information, they might get your left hand where you have a right. Solution:
Sometime earlier, send an intense beam of ‘left-handed’ neutrinos to the receivers.
2 The ‘no-clone’ theorem in quantum theory does not apply, since we are not trying to clone your
complete quantum state. A ‘classical’ copy will do. Reliability in evolution means it is very
unlikely that you need to reproduce quantum entangled states for your clone to operate. This
statement would not exclude the possibility that some choices (‘free will’) come from the collapse
of entangled states in their interaction with the environment.
3 This is not the only strategy for survivability: Sharks have evolved into perfectly marvelous
carnivores, with only subtle changes in hundreds of millions of years.
4 I.S. Shklovskii & Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe, [Holden Day, Inc., San Francisco]
(1966).
623
greater than the speed of light. The signal would take about four and a half years
to get to the nearest star system (Alpha Centuri). Fifth (the really hard part): At
the receiving end, have the sentient beings there reconstruct a clone of you from
the information received. 1 Advantage can be taken in the transmission process and
the reconstruction process of our prior knowledge of the general structures common
to all humans. (Note that the reconstructed version of you will need a number of
essential fungi, bacteria, and microscopic epidermal arthropods that we have come
to rely on in symbiotic relationships).
Now there are two of you in the Universe. Your clone 2 will not have your
blemishes, or your healed broken bones, but that, we suppose, is good! Some
societies will require you to sign a ‘vaporization agreement’ to limit the number
of your twins in the Universe.
18.10 The Future of Life
It appears that one of the essential elements of evolution is the presence of
competition between individual organisms and groups of organisms. If so, life forms
necessarily carry aggressive tendencies, either explicitly, or behind a veil covering
the primitive parts of their brain. The result is often a ‘we-they’ syndrome: A
polarization of populations based on perceived distinctions, with the evolutionary
purpose of enhancing and spreading those in the same group. The genes of
successful groups become more dominant.
If a particular life form evolves high intelligence with the associated increased
survivability, 3 technology may give that life form the ability to annihilate not just
other groups, but all life on the home planet. I.S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, 4 while
trying to estimate the number of life forms in the galaxy that might be able to
communicate with us, guessed that the lifetime of life forms, once that life form
had gained the knowledge and technology for planetary destruction, is about 100
years. They still estimated millions of planets in the Milky Way with life that could
send out radio waves to us.
1 Without parity information, they might get your left hand where you have a right. Solution:
Sometime earlier, send an intense beam of ‘left-handed’ neutrinos to the receivers.
2 The ‘no-clone’ theorem in quantum theory does not apply, since we are not trying to clone your
complete quantum state. A ‘classical’ copy will do. Reliability in evolution means it is very
unlikely that you need to reproduce quantum entangled states for your clone to operate. This
statement would not exclude the possibility that some choices (‘free will’) come from the collapse
of entangled states in their interaction with the environment.
3 This is not the only strategy for survivability: Sharks have evolved into perfectly marvelous
carnivores, with only subtle changes in hundreds of millions of years.
4 I.S. Shklovskii & Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe, [Holden Day, Inc., San Francisco]
(1966).