Life on Earth, forever?

Algren

"Life on Earth, forever?" Well obviously NOT, that looks more like a fairytale.

When is the time when 1000 humans have left and have/not returned to the surface, according to the current trend?

And, if we consider development, and emerging of new Space-countries, what will be the answer for the same?

DaveC426913

Your thoughts are disjointed and terse. I had to read your post three times to understand it.

What does this mean?

Well, seeing as our current tally is zero, there is no trend as yet.


Same.

qraal

No reason why we should leave in toto. Why do you think humans are leaving Earth forever?

Nik_2213

When the Sun ages and inflates towards 'Red Giant' phase would be a good time to vacate planet. Okay, there's several billion years to go, and there'd be several millenia warning-- Our distant descendants could probably wait for Mercury to be engulfed before starting to react...

By then, I'd hope there were several functional 'beanstalks', if theory advances haven't given us 'antigravity'...

Wanderlust

And humans wouldn't even be humans anymore.

Radrook

There is another scenario that might develop that involves the earch assuming an orbit farther from the sun than it is now due to the decrease in solar gravity. Consideration of this possibility is based on observation of what is assumed occured with a planet, V391 pegasi b orbiting a star such as our own which went through the red giant stage and is now a white dwarf.

Cantstandit

Exactly. If we somehow manage not to destroy ourselves, there is no telling how "humans" will look like in a 1000 of years, let alone in millions or billions of years. Even if we went back to stone age tomorrow, and forgot about genetic engineering etc. in two, three million years we would look completely different.
As for OP question, I think it is not unimaginable that the life on Earth will last "forever" (forever i.e. untill the planet is destroyed). And by life I mean "a life" not human life. There is currently no known threat (short of gamma ray burst maybe?) that could completely sterilize the earth. Even full on nuclear exchange could not kill all the bacteria in earth, ocean, atmosphere. There are deep caves and hot volcanoes that host life, that can be safely regarded as independent of human affairs.

Cosmo Novice

Gamma rays could do it, also a sufficient sized meteor/comet impact could physically break the planet up which would probably kill almost everything - although I grant some extremophiles may survive in ice/rock even though this may be unlikely.

Radrook

What makes you think that humans will undergo such a drastic transformation in a mere thousand years? As we go back in time thousands of years we find that ancient Egyptians Babylonians, Sumerians were as human as we are. Please consider the Egyptian, and other human mummified remains as well as skeletal remains that go back several or more thousand years.

Chinchorro mummies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchorro_mummies

About the OPED.

If indeed mankind were to find its home threateneed by a bloating sun at that advanced time it's hard to imagine that it would lack the technological resources to respond effectively in order to protect itself or its home. it would have plenty of time to prepare. Some have suggested a purposeful nudging of earth into a higher orbit in order to compensate for the sun's bloating. A placement of an asteroid or asteroids in orbit about the earth has been suggested as a way to gradually accomplish this.

Ryan_m_b

The sun increasing in size is a process that will occur over hundreds of millions of years. Hypothesising about what a possible sentient species on Earth could do at such time is rather pointless.

Wanderlust

^ Transhumanism

There will be some form of biological activity on the planet until it is a whirl of atoms in the sun.

Cantstandit

I realize that, but think about genetic engineering. In a hundred years or so you will probably be able to choose hair, eye and skin color of your child (or even yourself). And the standard for beauty changes very quickly, think what was considered beautiful 50 and 300 years ago. I think in a 1000 years time people could look like weirdos for us without even trying.

Cosmo Novice

The problem is this: choices for hair colour/eye colour etc are already active genomes. So we can chop/change them all we like. I doubt there would be any major evolutionary change to any complex species in a mere thousand years (lets say 50 generations with everyone having children at 20.)

50 generations will not do much biologically, even if we are actively making genetic decisions.

Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolution for an idea of the timescales involved.

Cantstandit

Heh, I really know what timescales are involved, I have recently read two books on evolution. But it is not the only force at work. Evolutionary changes in 1000 years will be minuscule, sure, but I was talking about artificial changes dictated by cultural changes, which (compared to evolution) are very fast. Today you can only change existing active genomes, but who says what will be possible in 50-100 years? I don't want to post more OT posts, I just felt you had an impression I don't know what evolution is, while I do. I had to correct you, it's important, you are a person on the Internet ;)

Cosmo Novice

The problem is this - lets say that in 50-100 years people start actively modifying DNA, the program would need to be extensive to have any impact on the human races evolution as a whole - think of the costs involved and also that socio-economically it is the poorer countries with the larger populations. My point is that any genetic modifications are a small drop in the ocean of humanity.

I do understand what you are putting forward, I just think the timescales you have outlined are extremely unrealistic as they are too short - IMO.

Always good to have a discussion.

Radrook

These far-future scenarioes and the ways in which mankind might respond to them are being discussed by scientists on a regular basis. Exactly where along the time continuum, in your personal opinion, will such discussions cease to be pointless?

Radrook

I thought you were referring to evolutionary changes.
Thanks for the feedback.