SETI again

On Jul 21, 2006, at 8:54 PM, Robert wrote:
> 4) any kind of natural disaster could happen to knock them back to
> the stone age, and then it would be milieus before they even think of
> heading to the next star.

I think it would be rare for a colony to get blasted to the stone
age and still survive. Probably impossible if they're in an orbital
station. More likely is that you will see the economy of the new
system get destroyed, which means their existing technology falls
into disrepair and new technologies aren't readily developed.

During Europe's Dark Age, there wasn't a ton of new work going on in
the sciences and mathematics. In fact, they were forgetting more than
they were learning. But they had to deal with the fact that they did
not have access to unlimited slaves for manual labor like the Romans
did. Therefore, during this dark period they spent their time
developing new machines to harness energy and replace labor, like
advanced water mills and wind mills. They improved yokes and crop
rotations and lots of very practical things like that, without which,
we'd not be where we are today. In fact, they really had no idea they
were in the Dark Ages. Later historians longing for the military
glory of ancient Rome decided that for them.

If I can throw out another controversial statement:

The laws of entropy apply to life and civilization as well.

The only thing that keeps civilization from falling into entropy is
the input of massive amounts of energy from our sun. Future energy
sources will suffice as well (Fusion, antimatter, brane manipulation,
force-rifts in spacetime) The more complex the society, the more
energy required to hold it together. Traveling to another star will
require enormous amounts of energy, and starfaring civilizations will
be perilously addicted to energy. If the energy supply is disrupted,
the colony breaks down through entropy into a less energetic state.
Not necessarily all the way back down to the stone age, but to
whatever state the available energy supply can maintain.

Oil is just the beginning.

doug