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I don't think there is any chance we make it a thousand years without either reaching technological singularity or destroying ourselves. In the 80 years of tran

by zanny 7y ago

I don't think there is any chance we make it a thousand years without either reaching technological singularity or destroying ourselves. In the 80 years of transistor technology we went from string manipulation via pneumatic tubes to real time ray tracing. Though to be fair, both outcomes basically end biological human life - a technological singularity obsoletes carbon based biology and any rational successor species wouldn't keep living humans around when they can trivially archive our genetic code and reproduce us at will if ever needed - which is also then unlikely to happen. Its that or nuclear annihilation.

7thaccount 7y ago
Paul Davies (head of SETI) has a fantastic book called "The Eerie Silence". It was the first time in years that I had read a good science book written for the layman that taught me not only a lot of new scientific ideas, history I didn't know about, and made me think about humanity in a new light. I really can't recommend it enough. Ok, so he makes an argument that made me put down the book (ok 17 year old me) and really ponder the statement. It was his belief that "all biological life is transistory". Of course we have no other intelligent life outside of earth to compare against, but it kind of makes sense in a completely unproven kind of way. A species develops as biological and eventually transcends to machine. At that point, you would be far more intelligent (maybe) and the only requirement for society would be lots and lots of energy. You would essentially be a mind floating around in infinite cyber space experiencing everything there is to experience. You could travel to the stars if you would like (no cryogenics or food necessary), but honestly...why would you want to? The book mostly sticks to scientific fact and covers a lot of SETI history, but there are many additional topics like this that are thought provoking. Some of my friends were horrified by this (end of biological humanity assuming it is ever possible), but to me...it is the most logical progression for humanity to become more than what it currently is. These flesh bodies cause us to die far too early and our brains can probably only be enhanced so much.
- zanny 7y ago
  We are in effect the same tragedy that encompasses Octopoda. They are provably relatively intelligent and emotive creatures but have extremely short lifespans for their mental capacity and thus can never take real advantage of their learning ability. Humans are still that, just on an order of magnitude longer time scale. Its still hugely limited when compared to orders of magnitude larger time scales than that.

by zanny 7y ago

7thaccount 7y ago

Paul Davies (head of SETI) has a fantastic book called "The Eerie Silence". It was the first time in years that I had read a good science book written for the layman that taught me not only a lot of new scientific ideas, history I didn't know about, and made me think about humanity in a new light. I really can't recommend it enough. Ok, so he makes an argument that made me put down the book (ok 17 year old me) and really ponder the statement. It was his belief that "all biological life is transistory". Of course we have no other intelligent life outside of earth to compare against, but it kind of makes sense in a completely unproven kind of way. A species develops as biological and eventually transcends to machine. At that point, you would be far more intelligent (maybe) and the only requirement for society would be lots and lots of energy. You would essentially be a mind floating around in infinite cyber space experiencing everything there is to experience. You could travel to the stars if you would like (no cryogenics or food necessary), but honestly...why would you want to? The book mostly sticks to scientific fact and covers a lot of SETI history, but there are many additional topics like this that are thought provoking. Some of my friends were horrified by this (end of biological humanity assuming it is ever possible), but to me...it is the most logical progression for humanity to become more than what it currently is. These flesh bodies cause us to die far too early and our brains can probably only be enhanced so much.

zanny 7y ago
We are in effect the same tragedy that encompasses Octopoda. They are provably relatively intelligent and emotive creatures but have extremely short lifespans for their mental capacity and thus can never take real advantage of their learning ability. Humans are still that, just on an order of magnitude longer time scale. Its still hugely limited when compared to orders of magnitude larger time scales than that.