Machine Intelligence, the Cost of Interstellar Travel and Fermi's Paradox
Louis K. Scheffer · 1994
If machine intelligence is possible, and the computers on which it is based re-semble today’s computers in some very fundamental aspects, then interstellar travel can be accomplished by data exchange as opposed to the physical move-ment of matter. Assuming data exchange by radio, such travel is many orders of magnitude cheaper than physical travel. This low cost provides a huge incentive for an emerging society to join an existing galactic civilization as opposed to physically colonizing the galaxy. It is likely, therefore, that there is at most one advanced civilization per galaxy. This civilization may well have unified goals and objectives, thus removing the strongest underpinning of Fermi’s paradox. Also included is a detailed analysis of the cost of interstellar communication by radio, considering both energy costs and fixed asset (antenna) costs. This analysis shows that deliberate communication is quite cheap, and eavesdropping is probably futile. 1