Future of our Species?

[skuzie]

Our species will not live on forever - no species ever does, something is bound to happen to us - the question is what? and when? :star:

 

So what can happen to us? Here are some possible scenarios:

 

A) Destroy itself thought human conflict using agents like nukes or bio weapons, we will develop new ways and more effective ways of killing our enemies, what’s to stop this agent from killing us all?

 

:phones: Be destroyed by degrading our ecosystem, we are growing exponentially and using up resources up faster than ever and we are damaging the whole planet itself to be able to sustain/regenerate our environment for living.

 

C) Replaced by clone-like superior engineered super-humans, genetic engineering will become more advanced as we master the art of modifying life, whats to stop us from altering our offspring to be more advanced than we are? to the point where the unmodified person of today will be classified as an older out of date species.

 

D) Replaced by machines, who knows maybe all those AI movies about killer robots will become true?

 

E) Exterminated through external forces as in comets or extraterrestrials wiping us off, basically anything from the sky.

 

F) Branch off into many species as we populate other worlds when we become more advanced in space travel. If groups of us end up leaving earth for other worlds to be isolated then we will be cut off from other groups thus branching into a new species if left alone for many many generations.

 

G) Evolve into new species over time here on earth, we cant stay the same, its a part of nature to consistently remove undesired genes and introduce new ones, at some point we will change so much that the person of tomorrow will not be able reproduce with the person of today thus creating a new species by definition.

 

I would like to hear any other scenarios or thoughts on this?

[Queso]

Man,

check out the link in this thread

http://hypography.com/forums/computers-technology/6483-20-000-years-progression-century.html

 

Seriously,

It's HELLA worth the read,

ya dig?

[Queso]

Oh man, I have to quote one of MagnetMan's posts...hold on....

[ughaibu]

Built in (no design implied) obsolescence expressed by viral infections.

[Queso]

onsciousness could not have evolved out of a vacuum. Some seed of it had to be present somewhere or inside something. My belief is that as atoms come together each contributes a seed of consciousness, and via asssociation, project an even higher state of consciousness - a primitive form of self-awareness. One can sit under a tree and feel that it is conscious. A whole forest feels infinitely more so. Mankind is the highest evolved of these atomic associations. The vibe at a concert hall or in a stadium is awesome.

If we extend that atomic consciousness outwards to ever larger associations - our Earth, sending a conscious magentic aura out to join that of the assocoaitio of the other planets within the sphere of our Star, then further out to the galaxy and galactic clusters and the entire universal association - we see One vast Consciousness that we call Divine because what we see its symetry and order and this we Supeme Atomic Association we call God.

 

I believe human consciousness is an on-going process that is leading us from the infancy of our Stone Age beginnings towards an eventual sagacious state of cosmic transcendence sometime in the future, when our physical cycle will end in an ultimate state of self-awareness.. which is God-Consciousness

 

:star:

Wowzers,

I love it.

[Queso]

i love it so much it makes me want to explode.

such a ****ing brilliant paragraph and a half!

In the sense that it's so colorful

and vast-

Intense truth toward our cresendo

we need to fathom!

[Queso]

**** my tea is cold-

 

My body will be cold someday,

and then the sun will summon

the mites,

One morning

like a flower, hurricane

seeds soar like

angels.

[Racoon]

It's HELLA worth the read,

 

Yeah, if you follow the Yellow Brick Road all the way to the mighty Oz...:star:

 

I think it'll be a combination of Bio/chemical-weapons, naturally evolved viruses and bacteria, with global pollution destroying our ability to breathe clean oxygenated air and drink uncontaminated water. Not to mention the global deforestation and elimination of natural ecosystems.

Sounds peachy

 

Science holds the key.

Preservation and Recovery. Antidotes and Medical breakthroughs.

Energy efficiency and better resource usage.

 

I'd like to think everything will be fine. But I am a little too realistic at this point.

 

That is a well developed poll Skuzie! :phones:

[Queso]

i think we are going to send intelligence of a higher consciousness than our brain can perceive

in omni directions at the speed of light

someday.

 

You know what that means?

[skuzie]

Yeah, if you follow the Yellow Brick Road all the way to the mighty Oz...:)

 

I think it'll be a combination of Bio/chemical-weapons, naturally evolved viruses and bacteria, with global pollution destroying our ability to breathe clean oxygenated air and drink uncontaminated water. Not to mention the global deforestation and elimination of natural ecosystems.

Sounds peachy

 

Science holds the key.

Preservation and Recovery. Antidotes and Medical breakthroughs.

Energy efficiency and better resource usage.

 

I'd like to think everything will be fine. But I am a little too realistic at this point.

 

That is a well developed poll Skuzie! :hihi:

 

I agree with you Racoon im being a little too realistic as well, there are countless number of plausible scenarios that result in our demise. Hopefully our magnificent science will save us all!! :)

 

... and theres always the singularity ;)

[maineus]

According to christianity Jesus will fly down from heaven on a flying white horse to defeat the armies of flying satans and then rapture all of the Christians into Heaven and then throw all of the non christians into the eternal fire. How can you argue with 2 billion people even when this is a plagiarism of the greek myth or prince bellerophon and his flying horse pegasus defeating the chimera?

[Buffy]

You missed one of the most obvious options for this poll: We'll be replaced by some other species. My favorite candidate is bugs: I hate bugs, but they're so gol'darn efficent and hard to kill... :shrug:

 

Then of course there's being condemned for a Vogon Interspace Bypass, and Apes , and...

 

"What will he find out there, doctor?" "His destiny." :hihi:

Buffy

[Jay-qu]

If we play the time game with the universe, guess whos going to win! its been around for ~15billion years and will be around indefinitly, though it may become a very cold, homogenous and boring place... then we will have reached our end.

[Queso]

f****** absolutely menacing.

[Queso]

O How beautiful

the thoughts of what's to

Come

[ronthepon]

I think that this is an excellent question.

 

Global warming, environment depletion, population explosion(Being in India, i've been hearing that a lot), food scarcity, pollution of natural resources, Terrorism, communal instabilities, lack of good leadership, attitude of the new gen., etc...

 

What will come of us in the next few centuries???

[Cedars]

I dont think we will (as a whole world) launch enough nukes to create the horrors that have been speculated in thought and art. The Nuclear winter scenarios, the mass devestation by the explosions themselves. I think MAD works in the long run. I think should one of the nations with nukes that we fear initiate a first strike launch against another country, their attack would be short lived.

 

Degrading of the enviroment would not affect the entire world at once for several years, which is what would be required for mass extinction of people. Many species could become extinct under those conditions but not people. We would be among the last to go.

 

Genetically altered humans would still be humans so that does not apply in this thread as I understand it. You would need to make reproduction between non-modified and modified impossible for them to become non-human, and for the classification of a different species to apply.

 

Replaced by machines we created? Well then we would become God in the memory of the machines wouldnt we? :rolleyes:

 

Leaving the planet could cause that to occur (a change into another species) I guess. Reproduction would be halted because of distance if nothing else. New world environments have the potential for evolution but I would think we would not evolve rapidly without an established self sufficient population in place. We would be relying on our existing technology to survive the new environment for many years before the natural courses of evolution would come into play. Once that dependence was lifted is when natural factors would determine evolution again. But leaving the planet still would not alter the remaining population. Leaving the planet and surviving the distances/time invovled AND finding a habitat for people is a huge issue to resolve first.

 

As far as evolving here and now? I think we have thwarted evolution via our technology. Having taller people in japan due to increased access to protein is not evolution in action. The genetics havent changed to allow a different combination to reach reproduction and spread genetic make-up. Technology has allowed more people (who would not have survived) to keep these genes in the gene pool, thereby thwarting evolution as I understand it.

 

I think the only thing that could cause our species to become extinct of the choices offered is external forces. Meteor impact, the sun having a huge burst of activity that blasts the planet with overwhelming death rays, those are the kinds of events I see as creating an extinction for people.

 

So I can vote either for leaving the planet or for external forces. Or I could say a bunch of consecutive factors from the list above could result in the end of the future of our species.

 

But I could be wrong. Such is the struggle of speculation!