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Except that, on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death itself is solvable given effort a

Except that, on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death itself is solvable given effort and time. We do share this spaceship with many other lifeforms, but we really are the ones taking the helm. It wouldn't surprise me if humanity chose to restore earth to something like the state it was in before the industrial age.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death This sounds like more of a statement of faith than fact. I'm hoping this is going to be the case, but some issues may be completely intractable. Strong AI and fusion have been on the five-year horizon for decades.
- Arizhel 9y ago
  It's conjecture either way. From everything I see, I think it's entirely possible that humanity could technically succeed like he says: conquer all known challenges on Earth, eliminate biological death even, and proceed to the stars. However, it's also entirely possible we'll fail miserably and go extinct, not because any of these things are prevented by physics (they're not, except maybe exceeding lightspeed but you can always build a generation ship or use cryo-sleep etc. to work around that), but because our basic human nature prevents us: we'll fight with each other and annihilate ourselves, or we'll destroy our environment due to our recklessness and collective stupidity and shortsightedness, and that'll prevent us from making those achievements in time to survive. Personally, I'd bet on the latter. I think it's highly likely we won't be around in 200 years, or if we are, we'll be back to the stone age and our population reduced to very small numbers. We're simply not showing that we have what it takes as a species to deal with global challenges successfully.
discreteevent 9y ago
> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers We don't seem to be on a clear single trajectory. There is also a lot of short sighted self destructive stuff going on. You are right that we have definitely taken the helm but who knows which turn we will take next and the sea is a harsh mistress.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death This sounds like more of a statement of faith than fact. I'm hoping this is going to be the case, but some issues may be completely intractable. Strong AI and fusion have been on the five-year horizon for decades.

Arizhel 9y ago
It's conjecture either way. From everything I see, I think it's entirely possible that humanity could technically succeed like he says: conquer all known challenges on Earth, eliminate biological death even, and proceed to the stars. However, it's also entirely possible we'll fail miserably and go extinct, not because any of these things are prevented by physics (they're not, except maybe exceeding lightspeed but you can always build a generation ship or use cryo-sleep etc. to work around that), but because our basic human nature prevents us: we'll fight with each other and annihilate ourselves, or we'll destroy our environment due to our recklessness and collective stupidity and shortsightedness, and that'll prevent us from making those achievements in time to survive. Personally, I'd bet on the latter. I think it's highly likely we won't be around in 200 years, or if we are, we'll be back to the stone age and our population reduced to very small numbers. We're simply not showing that we have what it takes as a species to deal with global challenges successfully.

discreteevent 9y ago

> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers We don't seem to be on a clear single trajectory. There is also a lot of short sighted self destructive stuff going on. You are right that we have definitely taken the helm but who knows which turn we will take next and the sea is a harsh mistress.