Against the Empire

TL;DR

This paper argues that advanced civilizations are more likely to evolve through optimization rather than expansion, challenging common assumptions and highlighting implications for SETI and future studies.

Contribution

It introduces toy models supporting an optimization-driven evolution of civilizations and critiques prevailing expansionist views in future and astrobiology research.

Findings

Optimization-driven models favor spatially compact civilizations

Contradictions exist in tech-optimist accounts of postbiological motivations

Implications for SETI strategies and future human studies

Abstract

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.