Abandon Earth or Face Extinction, Stephen Hawking Warns -- Again

On 8/11/2010 1:22 PM, David Spain wrote:


Let's face it, in a million years we'll have as much in common with our
descendants (if any) that we have with our million year old ancestors....

Let's have a look at our evolutionary future a million years down the
line, courtesy of H.G. Wells:
http://davidszondy.com/future/man/man_million.htm
These balloon-headed critters later evolved into the Martians from his
"War Of The Worlds".
Although humanity would not change anywhere near that much via natural
genetic mutation in only one million years, the disturbing thing is that
given the extremely fast rate of advance in genetic research nowadays,
you could probably create something like that in the not too distant
future...say what? One hundred years?

Pat

On 8/11/2010 8:46 PM, David Spain wrote:

I'm thinking more along the lines of A.C. Clarke / Stanley Kubrick's
chocolate
bars.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...1_monolith.jpg

I still like the Star Trek Energy Creatures that everything eventually
evolves into.
Get your monolith he
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/mo...on-figure.shtm
HOLY ****! The Giant Storm is coming up on Jamestown from the west!
The little toad that has been lurking around the apartment building for
the past few days is going to finally get re-hydrated, assuming it isn't
pummeled flat by hail, or fried by lightning.

Pat

On 8/12/2010 1:26 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:

HOLY ****! The Giant Storm is coming up on Jamestown from the west!
The little toad that has been lurking around the apartment building for
the past few days is going to finally get re-hydrated, assuming it isn't
pummeled flat by hail, or fried by lightning.

Cut to "Balance Of Terror" music as the Romulan plasma weapon closes in
on the Enterprise:
"Duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da....DUH-DUH!
DUH-DUH!".
Estimated time to impact - fifteen minutes, captain!

Pat

Cut to "Balance Of Terror" music as the Romulan plasma weapon closes in
on the Enterprise:
"Duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da...duh-duh-duh-da....DUH-DUH!
DUH-DUH!".
Estimated time to impact - fifteen minutes, captain!
'

Oh, that sucked.
The radar showed us having a severe thunderstorm going straight
overhead, but zero lightning, thunder, or hail.
That little toad is probably sitting around right now and thinking:
"8/100 of a inch of rain?...where the **** did I get off only getting
only 8/100 of a inch of rain?...this is what _I_ get when the US elects
a black man president?"
And Glenn Beck would no doubt agree.

Pat

On Aug 11, 3:22*pm, David Spain wrote:
Quadibloc wrote:
On Aug 10, 6:24 pm, Sylvia Else wrote:

It doesn't really matter if the human race becomes extinct - after all,
who would be there to care?

We are here *now*, and we would be dismayed if our heroic
accomplishments were not remembered by descendants of ours on into the
indefinite future.

I celebrate the cave-prototype guy/gal who discovered upright walking everyday!

Let's face it, in a million years we'll have as much in common with our
descendants (if any) that we have with our million year old ancestors....

The best they'll be able to say about us is that we didn't kill ourselves off.
Which long term, is the best anyone can do...

I realize that in the present time, quaffing tankards of mead as bards
sing skalds about Einstein or Ramanujan or Telford or Bach has
somewhat fallen out of fashion.

But I do disagree that the _only_ reason to worry about something that
makes humanity extinct is the screams of those who perish at the
moment this happens. If human extinction were a non-event, and only
human suffering is bad... the human race should sterilize itself now,
and avoid the rush.

John Savard

On Aug 11, 11:43*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

Although humanity would not change anywhere near that much via natural
genetic mutation in only one million years, the disturbing thing is that
given the extremely fast rate of advance in genetic research nowadays,
you could probably create something like that in the not too distant
future...say what? One hundred years?

I expect a more modest degree of cranial augmentation... which would
be necessitated by vastly increasing the human lifespan. If we didn't
become more intelligent, we would be bored with a longer lifespan.

But with evolution under human control, it would do the things we
consciously want - and so, rather than our bodies atrophying, they
would presumably be made to conform to current ideals. Thus, think of
muscular and ruggedly handsome men and beautiful women... except for
looking as though they suffered from hydrocephaly. But it's all brain,
not water, up there.

John Savard

Quadibloc wrote:
David Spain wrote:

Let's face it, in a million years we'll have as much in common with our
descendants (if any) that we have with our million year old ancestors....

I realize that in the present time, quaffing tankards of mead as bards
sing skalds about Einstein or Ramanujan or Telford or Bach has
somewhat fallen out of fashion.

Yup. Drinking horns all the way when I drink my mead. I have a few of
them for the traditional coolness factor. One I'll even use for coffee.
It turns out Thor likes coffee. So he's not lost in tradition after
all. Though I tend to toast Newton and Leipniz more among scientists
and more of the toasts are about military and religious leaders than
scientists. But then I'm much the traditionalist.

That's a thousand years ago. A million years ago Homo Erectus was going
from just the hand axe and sharp stick and fire to a wider assortment of
stone tools.

Humans need not *abandon* the Earth. Just exapnd to more than one
location. The redundancy of living on more than one continent has been
good in cases of very virulant epidemics - One of them might have wiped
out a population not just cut them to 10%. Thus living on more than one
planet is even more good. Or on asteriods and such including bodies in
the Oort cloud ...

On Aug 13, 10:16*am, Doug Freyburger wrote:

Humans need not *abandon* the Earth. *Just exapnd to more than one
location.

That's quite true. I think, though, Stephen Hawking used the term
"abandon" just to avoid a longer phrase. Also, if humanity expands
into space, eventually, due to space being open-ended, the population
outside of Earth would come to be far larger than that on Earth.

Basically, I thought in my example to paint as ridiculous as possible
an image embodying my original claim that we want to avoid the
extinction of humanity - so that our own achievements and efforts will
continue to mean something. If people in the future continue to
benefit from the invention of writing, from computers, from
electricity, from democracy... this will be the case.

Singing our praises is optional.

But then I thought, why not note that now, since we are so civilized
these days, when men are resting from a long day's work and gathered
for conviviality, it is even possible for women to be entertainers
without this endangering their reputations (or safety).

And thus, instead of simply one bard singing as he plays his lute, why
not, perhaps, a muscal ensemble of another traditional Scandinavian
form... say, two women singing in harmony, flanked by one man playing
a guitar on the left, and another playing a clavichord, or one of
those new-fangled pianofortes, or perhaps an even more up-to-date form
of keyboard instrument on the right.

As was once done to celebrate a great military victory on the part of
the Duke of Wellington...

"...sen jag mött dig, historien upprepar sig."

John Savard

On Aug 13, 10:55*am, Quadibloc wrote:

As was once done to celebrate a great military victory on the part of
the Duke of Wellington...

In the event my allusion is too obscure, this link may be followed to
resolve the mystery. (Although here, in a rare reversed configuration,
the keyboard player is on the left...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoerV8K7igc

John Savard

On 8/13/2010 8:16 AM, Doug Freyburger wrote:

Yup. Drinking horns all the way when I drink my mead.

My brother gave me a flagon with a dragon on it, ala' "The Court
Jester". :-D

Pat