What kind of technology will be available in a million years from now?

  • #36
BWV said:
Fertility has declined everywhere except Africa? Is that actual fertility rates or choosing to have less in other countries? Also of those 5 children in Africa, how many die of malnutrition or infection before the age of 5?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #38
pinball1970 said:
Fertility has declined everywhere except Africa?

Its declining in Africa too, but still high
pinball1970 said:
Is that actual fertility rates or choosing to have less in other countries?

What is the difference?
pinball1970 said:
Also of those 5 children in Africa, how many die of malnutrition or infection before the age of 5?
Far fewer than in the past, which is why the population is growing

1699983776485.png
 
  • #39
BWV said:
Its declining in Africa too, but still highWhat is the difference?

Far fewer than in the past, which is why the population is growing

View attachment 335341
There is a difference between actual fertility, the ability to produce viable gametes and deliberately avoiding conception.
 
  • #40
pinball1970 said:
There is a difference between actual fertility, the ability to produce viable gametes and deliberately avoiding conception.
Not in the data, it just measures the results, but the impact of the global decline in sperm counts is no doubt part of that
 
  • Like
Likes BillTre
  • #41
pinball1970 said:
There is a difference between actual fertility, the ability to produce viable gametes and deliberately avoiding conception.
All the predictions I've seen are for the global population growth to slow and stabilise this century. I don't know whether those predictions are reliable. In any case, it's somewhat more difficult to predict the human population of Earth a million years from now.
 
  • #42
Waitasecond....

I have two parents, four grandparents, eight grand-grandparents. Looks to me like the population is decreasing.

:wink:
 
  • Haha
Likes DennisN and BillTre
  • #43
Vanadium 50 said:
Waitasecond....

I have two parents, four grandparents, eight grand-grandparents. Looks to me like the population is decreasing.

:wink:
Some cross over though.
Your 5th cousin 4 times removed is also my 6th cousin 3 times removed (either side)
We are practically family.
If you decide you want to come for dinner, I will instruct the under butler to inform the kitchen to order another pheasant.
 
  • Like
Likes BillTre and PeroK
  • #44
Uri Zlatnik said:
What kind of technology will be available in a million years from now? Is the world going to be a better place in a million years from today?

Will it be possible to solve chess or have completely self-driving cars and self-driving trucks in a million years from now?
We would turn on the great machine and wipe out the civilization in one night.
 
  • Wow
  • Love
Likes pinball1970 and BillTre
  • #45
nsaspook said:
We would turn on the great machine and wipe out the civilization in one night.

We already have. It's called social media. The Forbidden Planet used artistic licence and the barbaric monsters from the id were unleashed all at once. We're seeing it happen at a more measured pace.
 
  • Sad
  • Wow
Likes pinball1970 and BillTre
  • #46
nsaspook said:
We would turn on the great machine and wipe out the civilization in one night.

When he got back to earth he settled down got a less stressful job got old gracefully and even helped civilians with taxidermy now and again. I have hope for the next 1000 years or so.

 
  • Haha
Likes nsaspook, DennisN and BillTre
  • #49
  • #50
BWV said:
We are the most successful animal species on the planet, can survive in more climates than roaches or rats, so if any large animals survive, we will be at the top of the list.
8 billion yes. Very few of those driving the train. (Jim Jeffries I recommend)
 
  • #51
Humans are transforming an increasingly large proportion of the earth to human use rather than being left wild.
 
  • Like
Likes pinball1970
  • #52
pinball1970 said:
When he got back to earth he settled down got a less stressful job got old gracefully and even helped civilians with taxidermy now and again.
Oh noes! I never made that connection.

I guess I see an opportunity for an interesting sequel to Forbidden Planet, similar to Airplane...? @jedishrfu -- are you available?
 
  • Haha
Likes pinball1970
  • #53
berkeman said:
I guess I see an opportunity for an interesting sequel to Forbidden Planet,
There is already a sequel:

 
  • Wow
Likes pinball1970
  • #54
Back to the OP, we do not know the limits of science and tech, but have a much better idea than 50 or 100 years ago. Just because people 150 years ago thought they had seen the limits and were wrong, does not make it true that there great new discoveries to be made in the physical sciences that would result in technology we cannot understand today. It may be that we are well along on the flattening of the curve. Perhaps even with 1 million years of a stable human society, few fundamental discoveries remain to be made. It looks increasingly likely that human space travel within our solar system is unfeasible, let alone outside of it. ITSM that if you believe in unbounded technological growth, one also has to believe in the near absence of other technological civilizations in our galaxy, as it is old enough for some older race to have covered the Milky Way with Von Neumann probes or whatever.
 
  • #55
BWV said:
Back to the OP
Spoilsport...:oldgrumpy:

BWV said:
It may be that we are well along on the flattening of the curve.
Almost certainly not in medical science, given the timeframe of the OP. It is quite possible that as we continue medical research that we will find cures and prophylactic measures to cure/prevent most diseases and extend human lifetimes significantly. That may open up a whole different issue with overpopulation, if lifetimes are routinely extended to, say, 500 years. Not to mention the possible mind-electronics links that are likely, which could introduce issues with "artificial intelligence" being combined with (well, you know...).

I'm going to have to slink off and give myself a "Speculation" infraction now...
 
  • Like
Likes pinball1970 and BillTre
  • #56
PeroK said:
There is already a sequel:
... I saw it at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch. That's the further east I've ever been - all the way to the end of the District Line!
 
  • #57
PeroK said:
... I saw it at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch. That's the further east I've ever been - all the way to the end of the District Line!
I hope it was better in person than in that trailer... :wink:
 
  • #58
I really hope that humanity doesn't devolve into some neo-medieval rat race and that is also a possibility which is going to pretty bad very much like today's corrupt and broken world.

I really hope humans learn from their past mistakes and really make the future a better place for everyone, with better technology and more food for everyone.

In the past life was almost always hard and there were many wars and it's always been the strong imposing their will on the weak and using them and controlling them for their own benefit.

So I just hope that in the future humans learns from their past mistakes and don't repeat them.
 
  • #59
I'd guess years from now, a larger portion of the population would probably be living in cities. I really want to see what Manhattan looks like in 500 years, probably a lot more different from now. :oops:
 
  • #60
docnet said:
I'd guess years from now, a larger portion of the population would probably be living in cities. I really want to see what Manhattan looks like in 500 years, probably a lot more different from now. :oops:
I suspect it will be under water by then.
 
  • Like
Likes BillTre
  • #61
PeroK said:
I suspect it will be under water by then.
Then it won’t even be worth $24.
 
  • #62
bob012345 said:
Then it won’t even be worth $24.
If you meant $24 million and for a flat then I hope so.
 

Similar threads

Replies
27
Views
3K
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Media
Replies
3
Views
1K
  • General Discussion
Replies
9
Views
1K
Replies
1
Views
757
Replies
29
Views
2K
Replies
8
Views
881
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • General Discussion
Replies
12
Views
1K
Replies
14
Views
2K
  • Biology and Medical
Replies
1
Views
830
Back
Top