ALL SCI-FI

[Gord Green]

NO. Never. Not ever, even 100 quadrillion years from now. Never. Clearly, what follows is just my highly speculative opinion. It seems to bother people. Some call it pessimistic. Some call it overly optimistic. Whatever. Just my thought.

Should our species remain extant for the next thousand years -- meaning we don't kill ourselves with bio-engineered plagues, or Yellowstone doesn't erupt and kill us all, or a KT-like impact doesn't happen -- we will eventually cease being "human" in a few centuries.

Centuries? Not millions of years?

Yes. Provided that we continue (a) existing and (b) advancing in technology, by the middle of this century, we will have access to our entire genome, nano-technology (or at the very least, micro-robotics) and AI. Those technologies, if we try really hard to extrapolate their logical course, mean that at some point in the next few centuries, there will be no more homo sapiens. Perhaps a few "museum humans" will choose to remain in their old form, but those beings will live on Earth or space stations, too frail and ephemeral; too needy to package into dense vessels for interstellar travel.

If our descendants survive, they will adjust their genome. Maybe it won't become prosaic until 2125, but at some point very soon, the temptation to remove all "negative" traits will be overwhelming. The temptation to enhance with some genetic coding from other beasts will become overwhelming. The temptation to enhance with artificial bits - that connect us to instant information, right to the brain - will be overwhelming. The temptation to create new biological features un-imagined by
'Mother Nature" wholly invented by us and our super-advanced computer technology (maybe a new cell wall, completely re-engineered mitochondria, or a cell part that we cannot imagine today) will become overwhelming.

At some point, after sufficient changes, we won't be human any longer. We certainly won't be homo sapiens. We'll be something else--IF -we survive that long and continue advancing technologically. A global disaster could destroy our civilization but leave a few hundred thousand of us thrown back the equivalent of five millennia. But if we survive and continue advancing, then homo sapiens is done in a few centuries at the longest; a century at the shortest.

At some point in time, the advancing technology will unlock self-assembling, self-making robotics that leverage exponential growth that will either be our end or our elevation to the pinnacle of abilities in this cosmos. With lives extended to the many millennia, with intelligences in VR and AI's meandering about the solar system, "time'" won't have the same cachet as it does today. A journey at .01c, taking 1,000--1,500 years to cross the gulf between stars will be meaningless in the lives of those beings -- beings that are effectively immortal who see time as a non-obstacle.

Those beings, if they end up coming into existence, will achieve interstellar travel. Not us. Not humans.
Never homo sapiens,
but them.

[orzel-w]

Visions of the future of mankind commonly depict all of humanity advancing via technology on a united front. I tend to think more in terms of life as portrayed in the movie Elysium (2013). Unless the Millennials can overturn the present system of capitalism, we'll see our civilization split into the Haves and the Have-Nots (more so than is already the case). Those who can afford them will benefit from advances in medicine and techno-enhancement. The rest of "us" will have to make-do as best we can, spending a greater and greater portion of our incomes on painkillers rather than remedies.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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That might be the case for period of time before things get to the point Gord described: everybody will receive the benefits of the advanced technology and medicine, simply because we wouldn't need a labor class (the robots do all that), and we won't tolerate the the physically deficient people. Yhe defects will either be fixed genetically or cured medically.

Things might not go as far Gord described, but the way things are progressing now on all scientific fronts, it's certainly possible that it will.

And frankly, such a drastic and ambitious improvement in the often brutal and general unintelligent human race sounds like a good thing to me.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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You're still thinking about the intermediate period (which may last hundreds of years, but it will eventually pass) before mankind is capable of setting a higher standard for the entire species: Zero Defects - Just Because We Can.

Gord described an era in which mankind has redefined itself — from the genes out. He wasn't taking about a period when people are born normally (some healthy, some not — some wealthy, some not, etc.). The key aspect of living in this future age Gord described is that EVERYBODY is born healthy and wealth (so to speak) . . . of they don't get born.

The science will be so advanced that people are genetically engineered to an extreme degree. And I'm sure there might be some scary practices going on, like engineering people to have predefined skills for specific roles in society. This won't be something they'll chose to have done to themselves when they reach a certain age. It will be decided for them, before they're born.

What Gord has predicted isn't necessarily something any of us would condone — but as he state, "the temptation to remove all 'negative' traits will be overwhelming."

I guess you could say it's just human nature to want to change human nature . . .

Somewhere between now and that truly bizarre age Gord described will be the period where only the wealthy receive the benefits of advanced technology and the rest of the population does not.

But Gord is describing an age beyond that, in which everybody gets the "benefits" of this era . . . because mankind has raised the bar for what is "human" to such a degree that we won't have any use for people who aren't super-human.

As Gord said, ". . . at some point in the next few centuries, there will be no more homo sapiens."
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Evolution is the survival of the fittest...to the environment as it exists at the time.

Selective evolution is an artificial manipulation of the genome that has no respect to environmental conditions, but to a "selective" end result.

Furthermore, a total re-evaluation of the term "economy" will also evolve to be completely non-Kensian, but totally controlled. I can foresee a change from biological to cybernetic evolution in the future.

In short....we are presently building our successors.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[orzel-w]

The expression, "survival of the fittest", should be stricken from the record. The proper description is "survival of the adequately fit". Natural selection doesn't pick out only the best or optimum adaptation for survival. It allows any and all who are adequately adapted to survive and reproduce.

As for artificial selection and bio-engineering, they would have to be applied to any select population by someone who has an interest in that population. That interest has to be sufficiently motivated to bear the cost of the undertaking. I can imagine a particular genetic manipulation being of interest to the financiers only where the result would be a population programmed to advance the financial well-being of the financiers (ROI). Their ain't no Santa Claus.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

[Brent Gair]

I want to get involved in this conversation but I'm already confused .

[Bud Brewster]

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New anti-aging drug could extend human life span to 120 years

By Max Berlinger
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Science has been trying to figure out this whole aging thing for a long time now, and a new development just could be one of those watershed moments in history. According to the New Zealand Herald, a new anti-aging drug is going to be tested on human subjects starting next year. The potential result of this could mean that we, human beings, could extend our life spans to 120 years of age and be in good health to the very end

The drug in question is a widely used diabetes pill called Metformin and costs mere cents to make. Metformin helps to increase oxygen flow on the cellular level, thereby slowing the necessary cell divisions that keep our bodies both functioning correctly but ultimately lead to aging.
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I've been taking 1,000 mg tablets of Metformine to treat type II diabetes twice a day for five years! No wonder I look so good for a guy in his sixties!

Brent: Don't worry, you're not the only here who's confused. Wayne is too.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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My goodness, such bitter cynicism! Gee, Wayne, you need to spend more time with kids. It keeps ya young. (Well, that and Metformine.)


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My daughter and grandkids visited me recently, and my grandson told me about an idea he has for a science fiction story. It was pretty impressive. I made some suggestions, and together we outlined the story from beginning to end.

He's really a bright kid for an 11 year old.





I told my daughter to talk to him about the idea of co-writing it with me, and I'd pay to have it published and listed on Amazon, like my own two novels. I could even create the cover myself with Paint.net. Cool, huh?

I might not live to be 120 years old, but it will be nice have my grandson grow up knowing he published his first novel at 11, and his grandfather helped him write it.

I'm not naive, Wayne. I'm just hopeful. And I'm keenly aware that Gord's prediction is valid. Science will eventually make it possible to reinvent homo sapiens. And Gord is right in saying that since we can do it . . . we will.

Hey, that's just how we are.

PS: So that my granddaughter won't be jealous, here's a picture of her, too.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]