alt Hacker NewsI hate this assumption that many sci-fi enthusiasts seem to make, that as long as something is not ruled out by currently known physics rules, it doesn't matter that we have no idea how it could be built, there will be some way in some plausible future.
When we see currently insurmountable problems in creating a piece of technology, it's absolutely possible that we'll never be able to build it. Even if it is theoretically constructible, there is no reason to believe that the way to build it would be found before, say, the sun runs out of hydrogen.
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It's absolutely possible that we'll never be able to build it.
There's absolutely no evidence of that on the article.
> there is no reason to believe that the way to build it would be found before, say, the sun runs out of hydrogen.
A lot of computational power can be thrown at the problem in this time. So, the problem should admits no shortcuts, no decomposition into simpler problems, no alternative ways to get similar functionality that allow shotrcuts or decomposition. The result should look like a jumble of atoms that somehow produces the required functionality.
I wonder which problems can admit only this kind of a solution.
This isn't elaborated on in the piece, but it does mention that it's written in the context of the Fermi paradox. Adding 50,000 years of technological development and a 1,000 year rebooting phase at each star system doesn't meaningfully change how long it would take life to spread when considered against the 13,500,000,000 years since stars developed.