What should be done with the galaxy?

Leftist January 16, 2023 at 01:53 5225 views 27 comments
If anything has value - should exist, should be done - there must be a proper use of the galaxy, a use which results in the most good and least bad. Assuming all those currently-worthless nonliving planets could somehow be made valuable, isn't it more logical to focus on making that value rather than to focus entirely on Earth? There's 100,000,000,000+ non-Earth planets in the galaxy.

Personally, I'm a nihilist, so I don't care what happens to it.

Comments (27)

Vera Mont January 16, 2023 at 03:25 #773008
What I plan to do is map it, find out what's really in the Delta Quadrant and install a few more worm-holes.
Outlander January 16, 2023 at 03:52 #773022
Quoting Leftist
Personally, I'm a nihilist, so I don't care what happens to it.


This is the human condition in a nutshell. Can't even find purpose in the greatest gift, one's own autonomy, yet has plans for things they've yet to personally verify exists simply because "it's there".
javi2541997 January 16, 2023 at 05:54 #773059
Reply to Leftist why the galaxy needs to be valuable? I want the opposite. I wish the Galaxy is never occupied by us and it stays there, not caring about time neither the human's existence.
Agent Smith January 16, 2023 at 06:14 #773065
Don't be so quick to dismiss the galaxy as worthless. You know that life on earth evolved in an environment that includes galactic influences, be it miniscule levels of gravity and light (especially at night). May be these are to life on the planet as trace elements (elements like Selenium, vital to survival but found only in extremely low concentrations) are to the human body.
Bradskii January 16, 2023 at 06:16 #773066
Quoting Leftist
If anything has value - should exist, should be done - there must be a proper use of the galaxy...


Exploration. We have an insatiable desire to see what's over the next hill. The galaxy is the itch. We are going to scratch it.
180 Proof January 16, 2023 at 09:26 #773108
Reply to Leftist Answering your question is orders of magnitude above a primate's paygrade; you're probably going to have to wait like the rest of us for (terrestrial) ASI aka "post-Singularity" to find out. :smirk:
Ciceronianus January 16, 2023 at 15:20 #773164
Judging the universe is rather like waging war on Neptune, as Gaius Caligula is said to have done. You may judge it as you please, and even be proud of judging, but frankly you can't help but seem rather silly.
Vera Mont January 16, 2023 at 15:48 #773170
Quoting Ciceronianus
you can't help but seem rather silly.


When has that ever stopped people doing anything?
Ciceronianus January 16, 2023 at 17:56 #773187
Quoting Vera Mont
When has that ever stopped people doing anything?


Dum spiro, spero.
BC January 16, 2023 at 18:21 #773189
Quoting Leftist
There's 100,000,000,000+ non-Earth planets in the galaxy.


And on several of the 100,000,000,000 worlds some very smart lizard overlords are wondering what more productive use could be made of a blue marble planet, 3rd one from its star, out toward the edge of the galaxy.

Hmmm, is "leftist" and "nihilist" a logical combination?
universeness January 17, 2023 at 11:30 #773422
I think we should unite with Andromeda, in peace, and with common cause to ensure that the unison is benevolent to all involved.
T Clark January 17, 2023 at 15:16 #773443
Quoting javi2541997
why the galaxy needs to be valuable? I want the opposite. I wish the Galaxy is never occupied by us and it stays there, not caring about time neither the human's existence.


User image
Tom Storm January 17, 2023 at 19:01 #773480
Quoting Leftist
If anything has value - should exist, should be done - there must be a proper use of the galaxy, a use which results in the most good and least bad.


I can't see any merit in this idea. Humans make meaning and create values which don't exist outside of our value systems. We can choose to value or to denigrate the galaxy. Makes no difference, if it's the latter, it's just humans shaking a puny fist of defiance at the enormity of the unknown.
god must be atheist January 19, 2023 at 13:43 #774031
Quoting Ciceronianus
Judging the universe is rather like waging war on Neptune


I shalt not judge the Galaxy lest it place a judgment on mee.
god must be atheist January 19, 2023 at 13:51 #774032
I think it is high time that we take care of the galaxy. We take care of our heritance, Mother, the Earth. We are the custodians of this rock. And we took the better of it, this rock is pretty near put uninhabitable by now.

Let's strive for not creating the same fate for the Galaxy. Let's use only its reusable resources. Let's not exploit it for all its worth, and then discard it like an old glove or scatter its ashes on the fields like the torn pieces of an old picture of your one-time lover.

We must IMMEDIATELY print T-shirts with some slogans that blame government, the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex and the greed of our growth-based economies for the unavoidable demise of the Galaxy once humans start to care about it and try to preserve it.
god must be atheist January 19, 2023 at 14:18 #774035
Quoting Tom Storm
Humans make meaning and create values which don't exist outside of our value systems.


That, Tom, in and by itself, makes it worth it to pursue the idea.

I bid (call my own and thereby take possession) of Alpha Centauri, the Milky Way and the Great or Dapper Dipper.
Tom Storm January 19, 2023 at 18:48 #774107
Quoting god must be atheist
I bid (call my own and thereby take possession) of Alpha Centauri, the Milky Way and the Great or Dapper Dipper.


Cool. Can you give me a couple of stars - I need a hobby?
god must be atheist January 20, 2023 at 21:23 #774441
Reply to Tom Storm You can have Liza Minnelli and Fred Astaire. I'll keep Marilyn Monroe and Rachel Welsh. Okay, you can have MM if you gimme Boardwalk and New York Ave. Plus the Electric Company.
jgill January 20, 2023 at 22:11 #774454
Quoting Ciceronianus
Judging the universe is rather like waging war on Neptune


You say that as if you know. Well, I've been there and done that and I can tell you it's no picnic. I was medically evacuated on Starflight X-3p and brought back to Earth to have my torso replaced. As far as I'm concerned the damned Neptunites can fend for themselves. What's the galaxy coming to? :roll:
Agent Smith January 21, 2023 at 03:37 #774507
We had such a painful experience with European colonization and now in movies, I see Africans & Asians as part of colonization groups sent to other planets. What gives?
Leftist January 22, 2023 at 10:30 #774751
Reply to Tom Storm doesn't that mean everyone's wrong about what should exist and should happen?
Bylaw January 23, 2023 at 21:55 #775176
Reply to Leftist
What should be done with the galaxy?
Enjoy looking at it on clear nights with loved ones.
punos January 24, 2023 at 01:28 #775241
Reply to Leftist
Convert it all to computronium, and then connect it all into a galactic network of artificially intelligent planets. In essence make the galaxy conscious.
Leftist January 26, 2023 at 22:53 #776244
Reply to punos
Interesting. But why?
punos January 27, 2023 at 03:57 #776320
Quoting Leftist
Interesting. But why?


Because of the nature of life and intelligence. The biological imperative is to survive and reproduce, and the evolutionary imperative is to complexify. Biological systems will continue to complexify and evolve into more robust forms eventually becoming more, and more adapted to the extreme conditions of the planet and the universe as a whole. Any and every planet that develops life will inevitably develop into a singular electronic cybernetic intelligent life form of planetary scale (technological singularity).

The imperatives that drove the initial process will only continue to expand out into as many environments as possible. Computronium affords this expanding form of life and intelligence the highest level of complexity and adaptability. Once an entire galaxy has been transformed into this active complex material (computronium), vast simulations will be possible. Inside this or these simulations time can be slowed down by actually speeding up computation. Increased temporal density can extend the subjective life of the simulated entities, buying more time for subjective existence. Time is the most valuable thing in the universe for any organism, organic or otherwise.

In essence it is a strategy to extend life and intelligence in both time and space, and to survive as long as possible; perhaps even extending beyond the known universe to exist and live beyond the life time of the original home universe.
Leftist January 27, 2023 at 04:14 #776323
Reply to punos
I think you're missing a real reason why any of that should happen
punos January 27, 2023 at 04:19 #776324
Quoting Leftist
I think you're missing a real reason why any of that should happen


Perhaps i have, what do you think it is?