It is argued that the “generic” evolutionary pathway of advanced technological civilizations is 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. Download the PDF
Milan M. Ćirković Ph.D. is a fellow of the IEET, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia, and Senior Research Associate at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.