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So today @elonmusk tweeted that our purpose in life is to pass the "great filter." He is saying we need to overcome whatever has stopped inanimate matter from transforming through abiogenesis to ubiqitous long lasting life, populating the universe. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1274614961151414273?s=20
If you're not familiar with the "great filter" idea and why @elonmusk wants to colonize Mars, see this video explainer:
Riffing off of another tweet from @elonmusk, the simplest theory for what the "great filter" is in my mind is that it is the speed of light, a seemingly arbitrary limitation that keeps us from being able to look at the universe from the outside. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1205027748894384128
This constraint on our ability to observe certain parts of the universe during an entire lifetime of consciousness seems like a better method of containing our existence than a physical wall in the Truman show
If we imagine a concrete wall is a stronger barrier than a finite conscious lifespan plus finite speed of light, this is an illusion in our materialistic perceptions https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1042514356347396096
Once we can create a simulation as complex as our own, there is less reason to explore the universe rather than creating & exploring the multiverse. The rendering speed within these simulations could be set based on available computing speed & amount of complexity in rendering
If rendering time in a simulated world was faster than in the present world (high compute power, low complexity world), this could lengthen the amount of time conscious beings lived within these worlds. For an analogy from this universe, fast moving objects age more slowly.
The problem is that a low complexity world with fast rendering would be more challenging to contain because it would be easier to travel to the edge just like Truman did. So, it seems better to make sims where complexity always outpaces rendering speed, even if that limits speed
As long as we created simulations that were slightly faster and each sim made sims that were slightly faster, speed could be addressed. The greater depth of sims within sims would allow highly complex worlds with faster and faster rendering speeds.
It might seem impossible to render faster than the speed of light, but I'm not saying it would be at this speed within our universe. We just have to make a world where rendering is quicker within the new world while time passes at a fixed pace here https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1205194527335563264
Though it would seem like a challenge to make a complex world that was rich for perception, this could be done by creating two layers with a low resolution automatic propagation in a "materialistic" layer which includes all the other laws of physics.
A second sim conscious focused layer could have greater fidelity and resolution, but much of the consciousness layer could be non-simulated live action players projected from the base reality similar to all sims. They might feel time was moving fast. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1042514356347396096
I'm not trying to say it is a bad idea to colonize multiple planets within our universe over the next few million years, but from a risk management perspective, how many galaxies would we need? Particularly within my lifetime, it would be better to go deeper than wider.
This is a potential answer to Fermi's paradox as to why we haven't encountered any inter-galactic civilizations. That is, civilizations in our universe would be better off focusing on creating the multiverse rather than exploring the universe. The speed of light is the answer.
This proposed answer to Fermi's paradox includes a proposed answer to overcoming the great filter. If we want to overcome the speed of light, we would need to make new universes with a faster rendering speed so that we can travel faster within them.
