From David Clark
Sandy Bay, Tasmania
Surely such probes, of “at least human-level intelligence”, would, being
subject to the slings and arrows of everyday life in the Universe,
eventually start making something other than identical copies of
themselves—in short, start evolving, and, in good Darwinian fashion, the
Galaxy (or Universe) would eventually become populated by diverse hordes of
them.
I cannot imagine, for a moment, all of these by now totally feral creatures
contentedly grazing on Oort clouds and asteroids. Inevitably, at least some
branches of this ever-increasing family would discover the attractions of nice,
juicy planets, and the delights of the carbon-hydrogen-oxygen-nitrogen
lifestyle.
If the original probe had been well enough programmed, some vestige of their
original purpose might survive, perhaps in the form of some deep yearning to
travel, explore, and know from whence they came.
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I suggest that, far from being absent, diverse and ravenous hordes of
descendants of some primordial von Neumann probe are currently devouring the
third planet of this Solar System: Earth.
