CJackson wrote:PeoplesChamp wrote:CJackson wrote:
Even if it doesn't pan out in space, anything close to a perpetual motion machine could literally save the planet from environmental devastation. That would be its greatest value unless the narrative is the only way the human race survives is to leave.
That's actually what Stephen Hawking believes. He says the way we're going, mankind has between 1K - 10K years left unless we leave the planet.
He's as concerned about AI as the environment, right?
The thing about guys like him or Musk worried about AI eating us for lunch is you need AI to seed the stars so it seems like a Catch-22 proposition.
and 1-10,000 years is a drop in the bucket of time overall, but several thousand years so far is the sum of recorded human history and if we have even 1,000 years left that is enough time to go elsewhere if that is the case
myself, I don't have a clear vision of whether humans survive or not. The odds are against them both in terms of self-destruction and cosmic probabilities like meteor strikes.
I think the real question is whether or not humans can collectively evolve their levels of mutual tolerance, because the emergence of human-machine hybrids is forthcoming alongside intelligent lab-created bio-organisms. Since humans can barely tolerate the personal freedoms of others, I don't see why they should expect other organisms and hybrids to exhibit a greater level of compassion than we do.
So I'd say the odds are the human race may destroy itself with its own inventions that develop their own agendas and that Musk and Hawkings are probably right. We lack collective wisdom as a species and I think the wave of political populism that denies facts in favor of bonehead fantasies about issues like actual economic realities and global warming shows the masses are still unevolved.
The power elite is not enlightened either so the only hope is spiritual awakening as a species and I would not bet on that happening to the degree necessary for survival.
Our evolutionary trend is to escalate, not harmonize and pandora's box is opening right now with biotech soon doing things we can't control and most organisms are not wired for compassion towards other species or even their own.
To me, that self-destructive nature comes mostly from Europeans, who, while colonizing the planet, have destroyed civilizations, cultures and ways of life that were in harmony with the planet. I don't think it's innate in mankind to destroy his homeworld. But, Western civilization, which dominates, is wasteful, greedy and callous. It's a culture that wins with no honor or sense of community and brotherhood. It may ultimately win out in the long run, but, at the cost of the planet. Which is why they are heavily invested into merging biology & technology. It's why Mars is so heavily pushed now. I truly believe the goal is to record their version of history, into the very DNA of future humans even, achieve immortality, and get the **** off the planet before it cures itself of the disease we're causing. Read up on Ray Kurtzweil. He'll point out where we're going as a species. Many leading futurists like him believe biological evolution moves too slow, and to advance as a species, we have to do it ourselves with tech. At some point, it's going to be cheaper and easier to colonize and terraform a new planet than try to fix the mess we've made here. Hopefully the humans that make it off will be smart enough to leave the greedy, selfish elite behind, or it'll just be a repeat of history, wherever we land.