Chitchat Shibe’s Existential Discussion

[Shibe]

Shibe’s Existential Question of the Day:

What will be the future of humanity as a whole?


Since our lifespans are a very, very, very, small portion of our universe’s existence. What will become of us? Will a asteroid annihilate us all? Global warming literally smother us to death? Gamma ray blast? A antibiotic resistant bacteria have its revenge?

Or will we simply planet hop and terraform any lifeless piece of land we touch? Will we live long enough to form some crazy Galactic empire after Earth is gone? Could we possibly even escape our own universe and travel throughout the multiverse?

What do you think the future of humanity will be? (It doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive response, morbidity is allowed here )​

 

[Idea]

I'll start by stating the obvious: Nobody knows. All kinds of things are possible and no one option is the most definitely likely.

Good now, that's settled, we can talk about more oriented opinions, with actual conclusions instead of everyone going to the same unproductive midway point on everything.

Right? There's no need to post about that on comments below...

...right?


In any case, my stance is as follows:

*Technology: I believe we will reach immense powers as far as virtual reality is concerned.
We are almost certainly headed for great medical advances through robotics and genetics alike, but we are also headed for an almost inevitable genetic disaster that will make cancer look like a mild cold. The more power we get to "determine" ourselves and our surroundings, the more addicted we'll become to it. The more bold we'll become about it. And when that happens, it's very easy to loose sight and make a horrible, irreversible mistake.
I believe at some point we will cross the singularity in artificial intelligence. From there on out, almost anything is possible.

*Territory: There aren't enough resources on Earth for space colonization. In the time it'd take us to develop what we'd need we'll have exhausted too much to actually make the trip. I can imagine us trying some kind of virtual reality simulation though to keep us asleep and thus consume less resources in a last ditched attempt.

*Culture: Trends and values will change over time, but the same age-old types of conflict will just remain.

*Religion: Atheism and angosticism will continue to spread with science, but christianity, judaism and islam will keep holding their ground. More insular religions like paganism will also be bigger than they are today, but will mostly be kept to very similarly insular communities, and probably will look very different from how they are today.

*End of Humanity (as we know it): Rapture. Apocalypse. I have no clue how exactly those will go down, but I believe we'll at least still be around for them (we humanity. Doubt it will be on this generation, then again betting on this one is as good a guess as any other)

 

[Shibe]

I'll start by stating the obvious: Nobody knows. All kinds of things are possible and no one option is the most definitely likely.

Good now, that's settled, we can talk about more oriented opinions, with actual conclusions instead of everyone going to the same unproductive midway point on everything.

Right? There's no need to post about that on comments below...

...right?


In any case, my stance is as follows:

*Technology: I believe we will reach immense powers as far as virtual reality is concerned.
We are almost certainly headed for great medical advances through robotics and genetics alike, but we are also headed for an almost inevitable genetic disaster that will make cancer look like a mild cold. The more power we get to "determine" ourselves and our surroundings, the more addicted we'll become to it. The more bold we'll become about it. And when that happens, it's very easy to loose sight and make a horrible, irreversible mistake.
I believe at some point we will cross the singularity in artificial intelligence. From there on out, almost anything is possible.

*Territory: There aren't enough resources on Earth for space colonization. In the time it'd take us to develop what we'd need we'll have exhausted too much to actually make the trip. I can imagine us trying some kind of virtual reality simulation though to keep us asleep and thus consume less resources in a last ditched attempt.

*Culture: Trends and values will change over time, but the same age-old types of conflict will just remain.

*Religion: Atheism and angosticism will continue to spread with science, but christianity, judaism and islam will keep holding their ground. More insular religions like paganism will also be bigger than they are today, but will mostly be kept to very similarly insular communities, and probably will look very different from how they are today.

*End of Humanity (as we know it): Rapture. Apocalypse. I have no clue how exactly those will go down, but I believe we'll at least still be around for them (we humanity. Doubt it will be on this generation, then again betting on this one is as good a guess as any other)

I really love this response! Very well thought, thank you! :3

 

[Idea]

I really love this response! Very well thought, thank you! :3

Glad you liked it XD

 

[JadeGreen17]

Yes. Nobody can truly predict what the future will be technologically speaking. Technology and trends are difficult to predict 10 or 20 years in advance, much less decades. The thing about technology is that it will solve old problems and create new ones, and the choice that we as a species make is whether putting up with those new problems makes it worth having the old problems. The major technologies that I see developing are:

-+-

Genetic Engineering. Genetic engineering is powerful stuff. As someone who was born with diabetes, cancer risk, and obesity risk on my mothers side and mental health risks on my fathers side, this is a technology I would really like to see evolve into the consumer market. It will probably start out simple, eliminating these risk factors for diseases on newborn babies, but eventually move into more cosmetic procedures and be developed into a system that can be applied to already living people.

Computer-Brain interfaces. Research is being put into these already and they're powerful stuff. The holy grail of course is being able to upload someone's mind to a computer substrate. This lets you do all kinds of crazy things, like move your consciousness into a new body or living completely within a virtual world and of course, as long as the computer you're on doesn't get destroyed or lose power you're effectively immortal. This would go hand-in-hand with genetic engineering and essentially allow people to have a clone body, be it robotic, human or something else.

I can imagine these being a huge deal in the future. A person's body will be no more special than the clothes they are wearing. People say for instance in the furry community can actually become anthropromorphic hybrids. Or if you wanted to be a different sex, a different race, have the body of a supermodel with the athleticism of an olympic athlete while never having to work out. If you wanted your hair to be bright purple or blue you could genetically program it to grow out like that. Humans, being the individualistic creatures we are, would probably If you had a computer-brain interface and were essentially remote controlling your physical body, your body would be no more special or difficult to reproduce than the clothes you were wearing. I myself wouldn't mind having an extra set of arms.

Of course if you go the virtual reality or computer-brain interface route you could really get outlandish. Imagine something like Second Life, where you can create your own virtual home (which in and of itself might be a custom kingdom or world full of NPCs which you created. If you're an immortal consciousness on a computer that doesn't need to sleep you could have a lot of time to put these together too.) You can build your own and then travel to other's homes, go on quests and adventures, etc.

-+-

Space travel and expansion will follow the money. Right now, SpaceX is doing well ferrying supplies (and soon crew) to the ISS and will probably start tourist flights soon. As long as someone is willing to pay for something up in space, be it an asteroid full of gold, a trip in zero-G or whatever. As the technology improves (self landing rockets stages, ion drives, inflatable habitats) the price floor will drop too creating a snowball effect of space industry. The moon will no doubt be first, especially if we can get fusion reactors working and we decide want Helium-3 to run our reactors.

Even if Space Travel doesn't take off (ignore the pun) with careful management of earths resources, it's possible to hold a lot more of us than there are now. Every technology we're not sure if we'll get helps.

-+-

Lightning round
-Oil and gasoline will probably be replaced with algae-grown Biofuels unless better batteries come around. We already have an excellent understanding of how piston combustion and turbine/jet engines work and modifying them just a little to work on the properties of these new fuels. And don't worry about CO2, these algae re-sequester the carbon dioxide from the air back into the hydrocarbon chains needed to make these fuels.
-Manufacturing and automation are going to continue improve. I myself have a 3D printer and I can say that machines like that are bound to change the way we look at products and components. I don't know how far we'll see robotics and artificial intelligence come or if we'll see the technological singularity occur but it would be nice. (I highly doubt the whole robot overlords thing)
-Wars are probably going to continue to become less common. At least conventional wars with troops and tanks and all that.
-Political systems are probably going to be forced to restructure to be more efficient and less prone to corruption and filibuster. As with modern technology political and social problems can come and go so fast governments can't keep up with their regulations anymore (since most of our governing systems were established hundreds of years ago when the political and social climate of the world changed much more slowly) More than likely a few governments will set the trend and when other nations see them starting to pull ahead everyone else will follow suit, but I foresee the incorporation of modern technology playing a big part.
-The education system suffers from pretty much the same problem. At least here in the USA, a guilded-age industrial education system is used to prepare students for the modern workplace where the grunt work is done by machines and free thinking and new ideas are valued, the very things that are hammered out of students in school. I suspect a few countries will realize this and begin to reform and others will see themselves falling behind and follow suit.

 

[Hige]

A struggle between the ramifications of capitalism and human rights.

 

[Indomitable]

The future is predictable, just look at the past. History repeats itself. Some sap is gonna coming in having all the answers, healing, false hopes of peace, yet have his own agenda in mind all while deceiving the masses. He will act as a 'God' and will want worship. He will rise up with charming words and steal the hearts of many. And any of those who don't worship him, well.. they will be killed off.

It's already written. It's already heading in that direction. The tower of bable is coming back. It's just a matter of when, really. A unified world, run by one entity. Buckle up.

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

I mean there is the possibility of our technology being advanced enough to have us move to a different planet but we would have to have A) REALLY advanced space travel technology and B)Really advanced cryogenics technology both. This is due to the fact taht we will never develop "warp speed" that sci-fi uses as it is impossible to travel at the speed of light for any object with mass. So we kinda just have to find a way to proglong our lifespans to thousands of years. I could go off on a tangent and explain all the different shit we need to develop to be able to do this but basically, were thousands of years off from being halfway there. To be honest as long as we dont fucking murder each other and kill everyone, which we are VERY capable of doing, we will be fine.

 

[Abendrot]

There probably won't be as much chrome as one might expect.

 

[crumbelivable]

Here's a video that explains my thoughts much better than I ever could.

 

[JadeGreen17]

Here's a video that explains my thoughts much better than I ever could.

Good video. Good youtuber.

 

[Kodama]

We might have 10-15 years left in us. Cheers.

 

[calypso]

we gon die

 

[Shibe]

we gon die

I’m looking forward to it, it’s expensive to live and I’m not even having a good time

 

[scorpiodragon]

A nuclear war between the superpowers will wipe us out

Global Warming if we do not take care of our planet and quit burning fossil fuels and increasing the planet’s population which could lead to widespread famine and potential war crimes

Possible gamma ray burst sending us knocking out all satellites and technology

An ice age potentially happening, apparently we are overdue for one, and that will halve the earth’s populatiks by a lot.

 

[necrobiosis]

Well, the way I think of it, a pretty large portion of our population as humans will be dying out in a few centuries.
Because of global warming, hurricanes/monsoons will become much more common and powerful. This will wipe out a lot of people.
Plus on top of that, the Yellowstone supervolcano has been ready to burst for a while and its more likely to because of human intervention with nature.
We've also been totally overdue for a massive plague, so there are quite a few ways we could be wiped out.
However not everyone is gonna die, there will be some post-apocalyptic thing and people will probably hop to another planet and possibly destroy it like they did to this one. Or maybe they'll have learned their lesson... but probably not if I'm honest.

 

[Windsock]

I too think everythin gsucks etc etc

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Ehhh...
Religious monotheists will claim Jesus will come back (regardless of which branch, they all agree with that). Huge war, right and wrong... one side will prime and everyone will live happy. According to that lore, the world will be in peace for a century and like basically not have technology.

Then after that happens, judgement day and the earth folds itself or wtv.

——

Personally, I think humanity will be reduced by a couple millions with all the wars in middle east, asia, etc.
Def some climate change, lack of water, desaster. Meanwhile, good healthy areas will achieve artificial intelligence, reverse ageing and probably extend human life to couple decades more at least. Most of the common diseases will be curable, but we probably gonna fuck up with some genetic modification trends.

Kinda scared that we will end up a bit too roboticized but at the same time... seeing how the job market works, we encourage creativity a lot so maybe we have a bright future??

 

[Axel The Englishman]

I’m still waiting for World War 3 to finish the trilogy and yet the release date keeps getting pushed back.

 

[FoolsErin]

The barely existing optimism in me wants to write a paragraph about how we’ll turn ourselves around and really go somewhere in the future.

But the much more present pessimism is fairly certain we’re all gonna die because of idiots with more money and political power than us.

Don’t quote me on that though, things could totally turn out alright.

 

[Anarchin]

The next industrial revolution will leave the majority of the people living in the "civilised world" unemployed. This will happen cause of the automation and robots. Technology will replace humans. Artificial intelligence even more.

USA will bankrupt (Sorry Americans) cause of the dept they have. Banks will inevitable want their money. They might try to do what they did with Creece a few years ago.

The State as a social structure of hierarchy might have to take a side. The rullers will have to somehow flight to upcoming enormous army of unemployed everywhere around the world. There will be riots even civil wars.Why? Well because once people don't have jobs they won't be able to support themselves and their families. The desire for bread will push into a revolution of a new kind. A social revolution.

At least in Europe I think. The State naturally is defending private property over the means of production. So when the rich replace their workers with robots and AI the authorities will have to take a side.Prevent a revolution and collectivise all means of production of the rich or protect the rich and turn against the citizens.

So it all my lead to a social revolution that might finally achieve Anarchist Communism. ♥

 

[Emotional Enigma]

Dead. By 2050 its projected half of the world will be unsurbivable living conditions.

 

[Jitterbug]

Extinct at some point, I'm sure. ​

 

[The Mad Queen]

I can see humanity going completely extinct in the next 200 years unless we either invent the technology to leave the Earth or do something to actually save it.
I believe that AI could be our saving grace or it might enslave us.
Will we encounter aliens? Possibly. If they are less advanced than us then rest assured we will probably genocide or enslave them. We sort of have a habit of doing that when encountering a new type of people.

Earth is heading for a dystopia, with many chunks of the planet being there already. I see some sort of global dystopia in the future, instead of individual countries of states such as North Korea, China (state controlled dystopias) and Saudi Arabia, Uganda (theocratic dystopias). What form that will take is probably going to be closer to the state controlled one as a global theocracy seems incredibly unlikely.

 

[The Mad Queen]

A struggle between the ramifications of capitalism and human rights.

We've already lost that struggle.