The future of Mankind

[Muscletang]

Originally Posted by ec437

That's not true. No matter how much we like to tell ourselves that, I've heard from some very smart people that it would be currently impossible to kill every single person on the planet at once. The radiation might get to them later though... who knows?

Ok it would be impossible because of all the small islands and who knows who has a bomb shelter very, very deep in the ground. It is true though that 99.999% will be dead. Do you know how many nuclear weapons the U.S. alone has? Lets not forget the hydrogen bomb which blows up part of our atmosphere. What if enough went off to start a chain reaction?

[Rally Sport]

Eh, I think mankind will go Starwars, having 2 sides Democrats=Jedi Communism=Sith. And we go into battle with big flashy sticks making humming sounds with every swing and yet we will be living in many worlds even those as useless as tatooine.

[Porsche]

I'm currently reading a book on life extension, they say with the rate that gene therapy is progressing, we'll be able to live to be 5,000 years old by the year 2100. They already increased the lifespan of a worm 6 fold using this method. While this will certainly have overpopulation repercussions, like others said, at the rate we are advancing, we'll be onto other planets soon enough.

'It's in our nature to destory ourselves' I like that line, and know it well, but have you ever heard of a thing called evolution? We adapt to survive. Sure there's oodles of nuclear weapons, but do you really think that there will be another cold war? Nobody is out to nuke the other party, based on principles of MAD.

We'll eventually smarten up, develop non-fossil fuel based energy and it'll be the foundation of a new generation that will probably be some sort of uber conquering colonization machine. Once we can efficiently travel to mars, the gate to the rest of the universe opens.

Keep in mind Alpha Centuri is very far away, but we'll have devised methods to adapt to harsh climates, lack of oxygen, and other speed bumps.

[fredjacksonsan]

Hey, only 95 more years until they can extend my life. Sweet. Now, if I could only make it that long.

Mankind needs to stop poisoning himself, manage resources, stop overpopulation, and cooperate to survive.

I wouldn't rule out some disease (aids? ebola? something worse?) that will cause a large population die off in the next 10-15 years. The plague in the 1500's and the influenza outbreak of 1918 are examples of a pandemic. The CDC and other organizations are very good at spotting and containing outbreaks, but I believe there will eventually be one that will have devastating results (this is currently happening in Africa with AIDS btw)

If the population is kept in check, and mankind manages resources, then we may survive to 10000 plus years from now.

[Rally Sport]

Well who knows about that 5000 years thing, but hey it'd be cool if I could do that, i'll be sitting there with my great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great grandchildren going "Yeah, I had this car..if was my first car, it was green..think they called it a Camaro, YEAH a camaro, man those things whooped up on Mustangs so easily..then they cut them off and brought em back! I remember I bought the new model..it was great" and none of them will be listening, lol.

[sivic02]

The whole 5000 year life span gene therapy thing is crap. The worms they worked on have much more simple dna than we do, also during their normal 2 week life span they experience a very small fraction of dna mutations, (assuming both the worm and a human live completely seperate from any outside factors to further contribute to dna mutation) which is a major factor in that pesky thing called death. The article that I am reading I am assuming is related to the book since it talks about the 6 fold lifespan increase of the worms says that they are slowing the activity of the daf-2 gene which contains the instructions for its growth hormone. So what they are doing here is slowing down the ammount of growth hormone introduced at a certian time. This might seem like a good idea to the worm, sure, he only has a tiny fraction of the number of cells as we do, is extremely primitive, and lives about 2 weeks. We are talking about a pseudocoelomate here. Now to a much more highly organized highly structured creature such as humans, nope, not gonna happen. Dna mutations alone wont let us get that old. We can slow the aging process, hell buy your parents/grandparents some human growth hormone, they will feel great and probably even look a little better, will they live longer? Sure, that is until things not controled by hormones take over, it might buy them a couple extra years, 5000? Not a snowballs chance in hell.

What im trying to say is, no.


EDIT* I forgot to put a link to the article http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGBM2IMP21.DTL

[Porsche]

lol, easy there.

The worm was a C. Elegans, and they did so by modifying genes that control insulin and sex hormone levels.

Read the works of Cambridge scientist Aubrey de Grey if you're still not convinced.

If you want, I'll post an excerpt from the book illustrating how they plan on achieving a 5,000 year lifespan.

[AlmostStock]

Like many people that posted, I also believe that we will experience some sort of large scale population reduction within the not to distant future. Unlike many posters I don't see us being prepared to survive long term off of our planet within this time frame. There are just too many problems to work out. Plus we don't even know if there are any other livable planets out there, or how to reach them if there is.

Right now we're still blowing up space craft in our own atmosphere. Is it realistic to think that in a couple hundred years we'll be able to master light speed travel and find suitable homes in other solar systems and galaxies? Only if you watch a lot of star wars movies. (EDIT: or robot movies!)

Before (and if) mankind is eliminated he will first be reduced down to much smaller numbers. During this period those people remaining will hardly be able or even concerned with trying to fly to other worlds.

Now let's hear from some optimists!

[sivic02]

Porsche, what is the book you are reading? Next summer semester I am taking a math class and need some good reading to keep me from going insane from the massive ammount of numbers I will be looking at.

[Muscletang]

Originally Posted by AlmostStock

Is it realistic to think that in a couple hundred years we'll be able to master light speed travel and find suitable homes in other solar systems and galaxies? Only if you watch a lot of star wars movies.

I bet they said the same thing back in 1805 about "super machines", "going to the moon", "horseless carriages", "explosions so big they could destroy cities", and other things like that.

Technology is growing so fast because of computers that they'll be so fast and small anything is possible.

Right now computers are fast and small enough for robots and they're already making them walk. In about 50 years they'll probably master robot production. Then, they can send them to Mars to harvest the planet for human colonization.

If you have an imagination and actually think for a second you'll see that in a couple hundred years anything could be possible.

[Rally Sport]

So there is a possiblity for lightsabers!? Dude I wanna live that far, lol.

[AlmostStock]

Originally Posted by Muscletang

I bet they said the same thing back in 1805 about "super machines", "going to the moon", "horseless carriages", "explosions so big they could destroy cities", and other things like that.

Technology is growing so fast because of computers that they'll be so fast and small anything is possible.

Right now computers are fast and small enough for robots and they're already making them walk. In about 50 years they'll probably master robot production. Then, they can send them to Mars to harvest the planet for human colonization.

If you have an imagination and actually think for a second you'll see that in a couple hundred years anything could be possible.

Maybe, but this same "technology" has enabled us to over exploit our planet and given us ever more power to destroy it. In 1805 I doubt anyone thought about "global warming", "weapons of mass destruction", "mass extinctions" or any of the other many unfortunate side effects of our spectacular technology that ultimately threaten all of earth including man.

Imagination is great but one must also look at the facts of history and be somewhat realistic.

[sivic02]

Originally Posted by AlmostStock

Maybe, but this same "technology" has enabled us to over exploit our planet and given us ever more power to destroy it. In 1805 I doubt anyone thought about "global warming", "weapons of mass destruction", "mass extinctions" or any of the other many unfortunate side effects of our spectacular technology that ultimately threaten all of earth including man.

Imagination is great but one must also look at the facts of history and be somewhat realistic.

Technology has helped us live longer, increased the infant mortality rate, sure these things sound great. But resources are finite. We will eventually outgrow the planet. I do think that back in the 1800's people worried about things involving mass descruction/extinction. Just ask the bible thumpers about the end of days. But yeah, we need to go to mars or we are going to have to figure out how to make material things out of nothing.

[Quickshift]

I believe we're going to create spaceships with the ability to carry thousands of people, with everything needed to survive bieng created on board. I think we can grow food but i can't think of how to we can get water. We can get solar energy. We should mass produce these spaceships, create fighter spaceships and take the earths population into space in search of a new home, and when one is found a certain number of ships will descend and live there while the other continue.

[AlmostStock]

Originally Posted by sivic02

Just ask the bible thumpers about the end of days.

How about it, are there any believers out there? I'm surprised we haven't heard from you yet. If you know the book of revelations please post how things are supposed to play out according to the bible. Any other religious beliefs of the end times would also be appreciated.