Space races: settling the universe fast

[bobbymike]

https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/space-races-settling.pdf

This report examines the issue of the resource demands and constraints
for very fast large-scale settlement by technologically mature civilizations.
I derive various bounds due to the energy and matter requirements for
relativistic probes, and compare with bounds due to the need to avoid
collisions with interstellar dust. When two groups of the same species
race for the universe, the group with the biggest resources completely
preempts the other group under conditions of transparency. Expanding
nearby at a lower speed in order to gain resources to expand far at a high
speed is effective. If alien competitors are expected this sets a distance
scale affecting the desired probe distribution.

 

[fredymac]

If a Type II or Type III Kardashev civilization existed in our galaxy, we would probably see it (their effect on nearby stars). A Type III could be spotted in other galaxies. We are currently less than a Type I (attaining controlled fusion and mass space access would push us close). A single type I civilization launching a Von Neumann probe (self-replicating robotic spacecraft traveling at sublight speeds) would have resulted in every star in our galaxy having one such probe taking up residence within a span of “only” a few million or so years----a drop in the bucket of galactic time).

This guy has created a bunch of interesting videos covering the subject among others. Here is one of them. He has a speech impediment but his video includes captions. Actually, his impediment just sounds like a Boston accent. Annoying but understandable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94iDdHRa2X4