Humans.

[guy07]

*Sigh* Here I go again.
Right, so this topic is sort of about where humans are heading in the future. And if you're one of those idiots who thinks we're going to kill ourselves in 2000 years, don't bother posting. I'll rip you to pieces and make you cry like a little bitch for underestimating the human species. We will outlive even cockroaches, I kid you not.
Anywho, this has been my main interest in the last little while and I am interested to hear what you people have to say.
IMO:
We are being separated into two branches of the same species. You can pretty much guess what they will be. The muscular workers and of course, the brains. If you have read HG Wells' 'The Time Machine' you will have a good idea of what I am talking about. If you have no idea what i'm talking about :http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ecies.html. (Maybe not that extreme, but something along those lines.)
I believe that within 100 years we will be able to intergrade the human brain with a computer. I'm not sure exactly where that will head ... might have some ghost in the shell action going on. But I believe one of two things will happen:
1. We will actually transfer our consciousness to a hard drive, within either a virtual network or into mechanical bodies. Either way our bodies will be nearly usless, which will lead to complications with making babies. IMO, we will reach a point where we simply try to extend the life of those who are alive and almost ignore pro-creation all together.
2. We will stop using human/machine intergration as soon as we begin it shortly after realizing where it will lead. In this scenario I see the most likely hood of the splitting species theory.
Shit, i'm too tired to continue .... will post more later. But post away you guys, I really wanna know what your outlook on humans is.

[NS]

I'd like to know how you think we'll get to the point to transfer our consciousness onto a hard drive or something in only 100 years with everything that's going on now... do you think everything is going to just go away and be perfectly fine really soon? or do you think we'll have world peace in like 10-12 years?

[guy07]

World peace and science have nothing to do with each other. I doubt we will ever find world peace. And as a matter of fact, if you think about it, it's nearly impossible. I'm saying we will likely have the TECHNOLOGY to do that by then.

[Kariudo]

of course we won't kill ourselves off in 2000 years...the world is ending in 4 years as a side note, I don't actually believe that...I just like saying it :p

[CodeZTM]

Sigh*

Ironically, I contemplate this virtually every day. Keep in mind that I like to think myself as an optimist, and so that will affect my judgment.

Let me first start off by analyzing America alone, because this is where I live and actually know history of and can make a general assumption.

Let's look back approximately 50 years, starting in 1950. The changes that faced our world are pretty big. In a general sense, people became much more accepting of others (specifically speaking of course of racism, religiously and politically). In America alone, we saw a vast change in the freedom that speech had. We came out of the conformist nightmare that was suburbia and the cookie-cutter American dream. While some might argue, I believe at this point we've become accepting of others (radicals don't count guys ) to the point in which I believe that in 50 years, we'll become even more accepting. Whether we like it or not. As laws become more and more harsh regarding political correctness. I also see a drastic reformation in the American dream as well. From the 1950's until now it changed from Husband going to work and bringing home the dough, Wife staying at home doing the lady work, and the kids doing what they are told without any questioning into a new kind of warped thing. Generally speaking, most husbands and wives both work now, leaving children to their own devices or to the devices of a caretaker. I see this increasing in and of itself to the point where the American family will probably be together a total of maybe 1-2 hours a day, give or take an hour or two. Then again, all of that is based on a slippery slope assumption, which isn't the best device to think about in terms of consistancy .

Technology will, of course, advance. Whether the virtual world you're dreaming of will come true or not, I have no clue. Although that does beg to ask the question of our existance and the point of life, if you can just pop yourself into a new world and live your life the way you want. However, I don't see that happening. Going back to the 1950's, we've definitly advanced quite a ways, but not that much. Although I can say that if offered the opporunity to make my own little virtual world and live in it according to what I wanted to do, I'd do it faster than you can say Oi. O_o


So in short: We're going to continue what we're doing and knock it up another notch or two.

Oh, and if I ever perfect that mind-controlling serum, people are going to be a lot nicer.

[guy07]

A world where you can put your memory into a computer isn't as far away as some may think. Some say in as little as 25 years we will be able to do that. Hell, we can already use artificial limbs that move similar to how normal limbs would. There's a few small things that when you look at you go "oh, cool" but fail to see what they imply as far as what you COULD do with technology like that. Such as being able to move a mouse by thinking. We can do that. Fuck,30 years ago most people hadn't heard of computers. And now we can use them by thinking? Imagine what we will be able to do 50 years from now.

[godix]

This is a stupid topic so I won't go in depth but I will point out recent history shows that everything changes except people. When print became widely available we printed the Marquis De Sade. When TV became widely available we produced Cinemax softcore porn. When a worldwide instant communication network became available we decided the only thing we wanted to know about people from radically different cultures and worldviews than ours was 'A/S/L'.

Similarly I could easily come up with examples showing that no matter what the government form it's always been a bunch of petty power hungry madmen controlling it. Or I could show how no matter what specific thing is considered immoral there will always be some religious wack job ready to crucify anyone who doesn't follow their morality.

So in the future we may have new technology, we may have new government forms, we may have new religions and new moralities. But regardless of that they'll all be used for basically the same narrow minded pinheaded purposes they always have been used for.

On the bright side, I for one look forward to the days of 3d lifelike porn with full sensory interactions. The day I get to experience that will be followed a few days later by my death because I refused to jack out to eat or drink.

[dwchang]

"It's a Zergling Lester. Smaller type a Zerg."

[downwithpants]

And if you're one of those idiots who thinks we're going to kill ourselves in 2000 years, don't bother posting.

scientists would say 300 years is optimistic. but anyways:

um, yeah, we'll probably go nuclear as carbon fuels become less abundant and more expensive.

globalization is going to reduce the US's relative economic strength and quality of life.

certain vulnerable food crops (corn and bananas) will be wiped out by disease. famine will ensue, though the scale will vary depending if we're prepared and if we have other abundant food supplies.

atheism is gonna grow. communities that follow inferential reasoning and skepticism will benefit from research advances in engineering, healthcare, and social sciences. societal morals can be provided for by law instead of religion. and snooty philosophy professors.

attention spans of our succeeding generations will continue to shrink, but will hit some floor. they will have immersive self-entertainment devices they carry around or can use at any time. like 3d PSP goggles.

gene therapy is going to boom. cancer may become cureable or preventable.

mind-machine interface is definitely possible in the next 100 years - projects are currently in progress. it will need to be regulated by government. i'm not exactly sure why we would want to allow our consciousness to be transferred to hard drives.

[Sukunai]

I'm familiar with the OPs thoughts on computer power evolution and where computer capabilities are concerned. The trick is mastering what a human mind actually is, not in whether computers can supply the needed muscle capacity.

And it better not be running on Windows

But the world is ending on Wednesday at any rate (Large Hadron Collider is due to start on the 10th) doom and gloom. No I don't really believe that, but it leads into my mocking how the world is already planned to end in 2012. Well clearly one of them can't be right

I'm not really interested in the state of humanity in 100 years. 1 million years is more fun. Why limit ourselves to trying to determine if one friggin nation is still in the lead. I'd rather try and see if our species is even still recognizably human, or merely extinct.