Can We Predict the Evolution of Future Humans?

[Dennis4]

From http://www.whatwemaybe.org/

John Glad is a retired professor of Russian studies, having taught at Rutgers University, the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa, and the University of Maryland. He is also the former Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, D.C. A Guggenheim grant recipient, he is the author, editor, or translator of twenty books, some of which have been honored in the American Book Awards. Future Human Evolution is part of his long-standing work on behalf of human rights, in this case of future generations.

His new book is free to download from http://www.whatwemaybe.org/

 

[NEBRASKA NATURALIST]

Hi Lamb,
Back in '75 I was taking a Theory of History class and the premise forced me to not only take all history into account, but to postulate what all that was proceeding to. And I came up with the most astounding idea I've ever encountered. Try this on for size: Humanity is the biological predecessor for inorganic "life" - machines. Realize this was years before the PC phenomenon.
Just take a few postulates into account and the idea doesn't seem as far-fetched as it sounds at first. If evolution's two drivers, survival and ability to reproduce are correct then can't machines achieve superiority in our environment, even greater than humans? If so, evolution sez they'll become dominant. Some of the developments along the way are 1) artificial intelligence, that is, the machines' ability to gather data independently and act upon it in there best interest; and 2) the ability to reproduce - machines makin' machines at will.
Now, that doesn't seem too unlikely now does it? If realized, the theory gives a little different relationship between you and the machine you're pumpin' now does it? Therefore humanity is just a middle-stage development of natural evolution. Just conjecture though. Whaddya think?

Peace and love,
NN

 

[Phobos]

Dennis - Do you have a point or are you just advertising the book?

 

[Phobos]

Therefore humanity is just a middle-stage development of natural evolution.

Are you suggesting that evolution has an end-goal? (that would be contrary to the theory of evolution)

 

[loseyourname]

Hi Lamb,
Back in '75 I was taking a Theory of History class and the premise forced me to not only take all history into account, but to postulate what all that was proceeding to. And I came up with the most astounding idea I've ever encountered. Try this on for size: Humanity is the biological predecessor for inorganic "life" - machines. Realize this was years before the PC phenomenon.
Just take a few postulates into account and the idea doesn't seem as far-fetched as it sounds at first. If evolution's two drivers, survival and ability to reproduce are correct then can't machines achieve superiority in our environment, even greater than humans? If so, evolution sez they'll become dominant. Some of the developments along the way are 1) artificial intelligence, that is, the machines' ability to gather data independently and act upon it in there best interest; and 2) the ability to reproduce - machines makin' machines at will.
Now, that doesn't seem too unlikely now does it? If realized, the theory gives a little different relationship between you and the machine you're pumpin' now does it? Therefore humanity is just a middle-stage development of natural evolution. Just conjecture though. Whaddya think?

Peace and love,
NN

You didn't develop that idea first. Arthur C. Clarke, in his Space Odyssey books, beat you to it. Someone may have even beaten him to it, but he certainly published this idea back in the 60's. The aliens that planted the monolith were said to have first developed the ability to transfer their consciousness into machines, and then into the energy lattice of space itself. Then end of evolution there was not mechanical form, but immaterial form. Mechanical form was the middle-stage. In fact, the whole process of placing the monolith first with the ape-men, then on the moon, and then turning Dave into the starchild, was designed to push human evolution in the same direction.