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Old 07-05-2012, 07:57 PM   #41
roguebfl
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Default Re: Colony World Frontiers

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Everything will have errors over time. That is the nature of entropy.
Yeah that why human mechanics will never be out of a job to correct the errors. Life is the reversal of entropy, by increasing complex order
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:02 PM   #42
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Default Re: Colony World Frontiers

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Yeah that why human mechanics will never be out of a job to correct the errors. Life is the reversal of entropy, by increasing complex order
Humans make errors too and the machinery that makes humans is certainly subject to random mutation and natural selection. Also species do go extinct (which is pretty much the only scenario that "safe" Von Neuman machines could evolve).
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:04 PM   #43
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Default Re: Colony World Frontiers

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Yeah that why human mechanics will never be out of a job to correct the errors. Life is the reversal of entropy, by increasing complex order
Ahhhhh, no, not in the slightest. Life exists by increasing the disorder of the universe.
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:08 PM   #44
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Default Re: Colony World Frontiers

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Life exists by increasing the disorder of the universe.
All spontaneous processes increase the total entropy of the universe. That's the profound bit of the Second Law. Biological processes cheat by using solar energy to make processes spontaneous that otherwise wouldn't be (by making the up for the difference in free energy between the reactants and the products).

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Old 07-05-2012, 08:47 PM   #45
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"A long time" is relative, but it's kind of a poor ultra-tech factory if it takes >25 years to build something.
True.
Its several years or several months. That is a long time for being able to check and seeing if you have extra factories. Although its stupidly fast on the economic side of things.

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Why would you error check it unless you thought it was capable of making errors? I'm confused.
If it made errors the chance of the very first error being a mutant self-replicating doom factory is about 0. Plus having a much better understanding of TL 10 tech than us I think its safe to assume they'll know if mutant doom factories are a risk. So if there is any danger they'll just check it.
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:52 PM   #46
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If it made errors the chance of the very first error being a mutant self-replicating doom factory is about 0.
The probability of a mutation in the safety controls is probably just as likely as a mutation in any of the other instructions.
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Plus having a much better understanding of TL 10 tech than us I think its safe to assume they'll know if mutant doom factories are a risk. So if there is any danger they'll just check it.
Okay, but that means they are accounting for the risk, not that there isn't one.
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Old 07-05-2012, 09:00 PM   #47
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The probability of a mutation in the safety controls is probably just as likely as a mutation in any of the other instructions.
But it also needs to be able to acquire new resources, find new area to build the new factory, provide the right amount of power to the new factory ect. It would be a bunch of mutations.
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Okay, but that means they are accounting for the risk, not that there isn't one.
Yeah, and then they do their weekly check and see a factory is building a factory that wasn't on the list. When it refuses to stop they blow both up and call it good.
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Old 07-05-2012, 09:24 PM   #48
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Because settlers willing move away from a ZPG high tech worlds are largely drawn from the bored and those for whom the population growth control restrictions of their parent society chafes. And freed from the worry that these would be a life as an adult for their child to fit in.
Those are two possibilities. Others are sentenced criminals; highly paid experts; and people looking for a challenge or a new life.

Even a colony of religious enthusiasts who believe contraception immoral is subject to two rules: regression to the mean, and "cultures always change." Their children will be less enthusiastic than their parents because they weren't specially selected for enthusiasm, and their great-grandchildren will believe all kinds of different things and adapt their behaviour (like how many children they have) to local conditions.
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Old 07-05-2012, 09:25 PM   #49
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But it also needs to be able to acquire new resources, find new area to build the new factory, provide the right amount of power to the new factory ect.
All that would have to already be part of the instructions for new factories.
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Yeah, and then they do their weekly check and see a factory is building a factory that wasn't on the list. When it refuses to stop they blow both up and call it good.
Okay, but there still was a mutation. Originally you said that mutations required AI, which is where I objected. If anything AI makes mutation less likely because there's full-time sentient error checking.
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Old 07-06-2012, 09:29 PM   #50
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Default Re: Colony World Frontiers

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But prosperous western nations show that being well off makes people have small families. Why do people think the moment humans have elbow room they spew out children like a fire hose?
Housing is cheap. Labor is at a premium. The Empire/Megacorps/Council of Holy Leaders wants to increase the number of settlers and will pay in cash or prestige if need be.
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