Shortcut to full PDF:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.03394.pdf

On a first reading, and accepting the major premises for the sake of argument, this seemed like the weakest point:

The reader might wonder whether starting these computations now is rational since the universe is quickly cooling and will soon (compared to the overall lifespan of the civilization) reach convenient temperatures. The computational gain of doing computations at time t is ∝ exp(Ht): it increases exponentially until the temperature is dominated by the internal heating rather than the outside temperature. Since most of the integrated value accrues within the last e-folding and the energy used early was used exponentially inefficiently, it is not worth starting early even if the wait is a minuscule fraction of the overall lifespan.

Grant that there's an exponential efficiency gap between computing now and computing a trillion+ years from now. There is also an exponential efficiency gap between using the power radiated from stars to power Dyson Swarm computing for the next trillion years and just letting it radiate away without computing anything, like a chump. A coolly rational maximizer isn't going to leave additional gains on the table with the human-like reasoning of "it's only a very small additional gain."

Interesting read and not my area of expertise, but it sounds like a bunch of hypotheticals built on top of other hypotheticals. And, of course, I didn't read the scientific paper behind it[0] so I'm sure some of my misgivings on this "research" are due to the filter it's been presented through but it felt like this whole "an advanced alien civilization uploaded itself into a computer in a post-biological move" technology would be a whole lot bigger of a problem to solve than the "cooling down a system to achieve system processing performance required".

I couldn't help but laugh, though, in that the first thing that came to mind was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference to the inhabitants of the legendary planet of Magrethea who went into hibernation to wait out the galactic economic collapse. Maybe that's the real reason they're sleeping!

[0] Which means the "telephone game" of this author's interpretation of the paper in order to write a story that will generate clicks is at play here.

I first read this theory in the book Calculating God, but it has also appeared in the Hyperion book series. I recently saw it in Black Mirror season 3 (for humanity).

Not exactly a new theory. Still has the problem of the exponential population expansion (in any form like probe or seeding or terraforming or colonization) leaving physical traces everywhere...if they were even marginally successful beyond an origin galaxy. The universe has been around a loooooooooooooooo...ng time.

Humans are so cute. The reason you haven't met us yet is simply that you're not ready. How do you expect.to love your galactic neighbour if you can't even love YOUR OWN PLANET.

Please stop killing each other and make Earth great again (sorry). We can help you build the next one.

Signed, Your friendly neighbourhood aliens

I have always disliked the assumption that aliens are somehow supposed to be highly more intelligent and peaceful beings. They could be cannibal sloths for all we know.

I'm a Vulcan doing the field portion of my degree in Human Studies. Ironically, I tell this to humans regularly, but they seem to think I am joking.

We've met already. Y'all just don't seem to know it.

Why would an alien race, who sees our very corrosive atmosphere as poisonous, care if we do things to it that make it less habitable for our particular species? Small thinking imo.