Space Races - Settling the Universe Fast 

This report examines the issue of the resource demands and constraints for very fast large-scale settlement by technologically mature civilizations. The writer derives various bounds due to the energy and matter requirements for relativistic probes, and compares them due to the need to avoid collisions with interstellar dust. When two groups of the same species race for the universe, the group with the biggest resources completely preempts the other group under conditions of transparency. Expanding nearby at a lower speed in order to gain resources to expand far at a high speed is effective. If alien competitors are expected this sets a distance scale affecting the desired probe distribution.

This report examines the issue of the resource demands and constraints for very fast large-scale settlement. If a technologically mature species wishes to settle as much of the universe as possible as fast as possible, what should they do? If they seek to preempt other species in colonizing the universe, what is the optimal strategy? What if the competitor is another fraction of their own civilization?

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