The Future of Man

[Madhuri]

Does anybody ever wonder, based on how we live and are progressing as a species technologically and intellectually, what the future will look like?

I'm thinking 10,000 years from now and beyond. Does anyone think that we will actually find lasting ways to generate energy for complex technological systems once natural resources run out?

Or do you see the world looking a bit like it did before electricity?

I honestly can't predict one way or another. I struggle to envision humans the world as a wonderful or better place. It seems almost likely to me that by that time there will hardly be any humans on the planet. That we might cause our own destruction with our greed.

But I haven't clue really. What do you think? And why?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Personally think it will be more shaded by technology, we'll be very advanced, possibly will have moon bases.

I think society's becoming more and more liberal, but at the same time a half is splitting into more and more apathy. So I think we'll be very liberal and advanced.

It's kinda optimistic for me to say but, that's what I think anyway.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

10,000 years is quite a stretch. It's very possible that homo sapien will no longer exist that far into the future.
But assuming we do I'm sure our energy needs will be met, the over all population will decrease as it becomes common knowledge that the earth cannot sustain our population, and our demands of materialism will probably decrease as more people realize our planet cannot sustain that either and there are more important things in life.
The religions of today will become relics of the past and new believes will emerge. Skin color will probably also become a thing of the past as globalization mixes more and more ethnic and descent groups. Hopefully by then the world's governments will be more organized and more cooperative and peaceful towards each other. There is also the slight chance that as people become more peaceful, more accepting and tolerant of others, and less hateful and violent as such people are moved further and further to an outcast status and their genes are passed on less frequently.
But this view is very optimistic, and unfortunately from time to time someone who cares only for power and wealth and has very little to no concern for others emerges to totally screw up things for everyone else, such as today's money-hoarding mega-corporations or the power-hungry church of Medieval Europe.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I think society's becoming more and more liberal, but at the same time a half is splitting into more and more apathy. So I think we'll be very liberal and advanced.

Because there is some emerging evidence of inherited behavioral traits, I too think society will become more Liberal as Conservative views become to be seen even more out dated, more hate groups are shunned, and more people will only mate with those who have more Liberal views, especially since the far right is becoming more and more synonymous with religious-based bigotry and outdated views that have no place or reason to be based on as laws for societies that become more and more diverse to the point that nationality and ethnicity may one day become obsolete. Those who hold believes that society at large deems unfit will be less likely to reproduce, which means they will not be passing their genes on or be teaching their ways to a new generation.
Actually I see far-right Conservative Republicanism approaching a very hard collapse within the near future as each generation becomes more and more socially tolerant and accepting of others than the previous.

 

[Reptillian]

Behold the future of man:

[youtube]uCRgS9vI6Ak[/youtube]
F - TMS - YouTube

I don't know why the video is backward with spanish subtitles...

 

[Quintessence]

Ten-thousand years? That's a little too far out to say. It suffices to say I don't believe in the myth of human progress. All things turn in cycles. They are created, they live, they decline... wash, rinse, repeat. I have little doubt that humanity will "fall" from it's current "high" status in the relatively near future. I put those words in quotes, because they don't really reflect how I see the situation. I don't see civilization or modern technology as pinnacles of achievement, nor do I see going to simpler ways of living as bad. These are beliefs that come out of the myth of human progress, which as said, I don't subscribe to.

 

[Panda]

I think it is likely we will have moved off planet to the asteroid belts in search of more raw materials.

 

[Mathematician]

In 10,000 years I would imagine that our species would be demonstrably post-human and not easily recognizable by us.

 

[K.Venugopal]

We would go on to become the masters of the universe and would realize that we were always so.

 

[DreadFish]

I don't know why the video is backward with spanish subtitles...

It's probably from another country and it's mirrored so that it's not a copyright infringement I think.

 

[DreadFish]

Dare I say that it might be relatively like Star Wars? Technology that is high to us, but is everyday and dirty and normalized to the people of the time. Add to that that humans will likely be integrated with technology, as trans-humanism suggests, (unless something happens in which all technology is destroyed, but i'll save that for one of my dystopian future fantasies ).


So yeah, that or the whole giraffe thing from the video.

EDIT: Now that im reading other peoples posts, I realize that 10,000 years really is way too distant to predict. I hold my prediction to within the next 1000 years or something like that instead

 

[Valjean]

Ten thousand years? All bets off. That's just to long to predict, when a single unexpected event or development can rewrite all of society.

What would such a prediction have looked like 10,000 years ago?; 2,000 years ago? The predictions would have been laughable.
Consider the I.T. featured in the Star Trek and ST Next Generation series. It's practically neolithic -- and this based on consultation with the best experts in the field at the time.

Consider that the Industrial Revolution began only a couple centuries ago and we're already talking about the collapse of civilization and end of Nature.

The speed of "progress" is ever increasing, the population and rate of growth ever increasing as well as the resource depletion, pollution and degradation of natural systems. This needs be a major consideration in any predictions of futurity.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube' Whoooa

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head then
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may thrive
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today

 

[idav]

Does anybody ever wonder, based on how we live and are progressing as a species technologically and intellectually, what the future will look like?

I'm thinking 10,000 years from now and beyond. Does anyone think that we will actually find lasting ways to generate energy for complex technological systems once natural resources run out?

Or do you see the world looking a bit like it did before electricity?

I honestly can't predict one way or another. I struggle to envision humans the world as a wonderful or better place. It seems almost likely to me that by that time there will hardly be any humans on the planet. That we might cause our own destruction with our greed.

But I haven't clue really. What do you think? And why?

In this information age it would be impossible to get rid of all our knowledge short of burning down all the universities and libraries as well as wiping digital data off the planet. We will be fine even if we lose the technology. Couldn't hurt to be at a point that is actually sustainable.

 

[Madhuri]

Interesting view points.
I tend to be skeptical that humans will advance far enough to form bases on other planets before simply destroying ourselves. I see pockets of communities surviving and going through a long period of time with no advanced technology, but with the memory of our age. Then again, maybe I've just been reading too much Obernewtyn (sifi/fantasy novel series).

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I think the idea of human beings traveling off-world and being able to permanently live on other planets or moons is highly speculative and optimistic at this point. I also don't see any way that we won't eventually deplete any number of natural resources that may or may not be able to be replaced with something else.