2008/05/13 by Milan M. Ćirković, Milan M. Cirkovic, Cirkovic, Milan M.
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0805.1821
17 pages, no figures, accepted in JBIS
arxiv created 2008/05/13 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2024/04/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is argued that the "generic" evolutionary pathway of advanced technological civilizations are more likely to be optimization-driven than expansion-driven, in contrast to the prevailing opinions and attitudes in both future studies on one side and astrobiology/SETI studies on the other. Two toy-models of postbiological evolution of advanced technological civilizations are considered and several arguments supporting the optimization-driven, spatially compact model are briefly discussed. In addition, it is pointed out that there is a subtle contradiction in most of the tech-optimist and transhumanist accounts of future human/alien civilizations' motivations in its postbiological stages. This may have important ramifications for both practical SETI projects and the future (of humanity) studies.