In the next 1000 years....

[Jimbozu]

We're going to have to deal with an overpopulation issue long before we cure aging. Think of all the third world countries there are today. In those countries people die off from things like aids, malaria, and other stuff like that. Think what will happen when every child born in africa survives? How about india? and china? We're going to have to deal with overpopulation rather soon.

Our planet may have room for all of these people, but we don't necessarily have room to feed them all, or the resources to keep them all healthy. We need to think about advancing the space program sooner rather than later.

[Zylark]

Like all other technology, it will benefit technology advanced societies first. If for no other reason, than that is where it got invented in the first place.

We cannot halt progress because some parts of the world lag behind. It is their job to catch up, not mine to drag my feet.

And catching up is easy. Democracy and free inquiry, free thought. Don't like it, stay undeveloped.

[Liquidtruth]

I am all for free thought and free inquiry, not so much for "democracy" which seems to be a poor shadow of what it should be.

[morphyx]

Originally Posted by Liquidtruth

...not so much for "democracy" which seems to be a poor shadow of what it should be.

Brother ain't that the truth.

We cannot halt progress because some parts of the world lag behind. It is their job to catch up, not mine to drag my feet.

And catching up is easy. Democracy and free inquiry, free thought. Don't like it, stay undeveloped.

I disagree only in that excess weight does not catch up, it tends to drag forward progress down. The population increase is only going to compound already strained food and water resources leading to even more poverty, starvation, disease, and war. Fresh water will be the new "black gold". Space won't be able to help in time. We're only talking 10-15 years.

[Jimbozu]

Originally Posted by Zylark

Like all other technology, it will benefit technology advanced societies first. If for no other reason, than that is where it got invented in the first place.

We cannot halt progress because some parts of the world lag behind. It is their job to catch up, not mine to drag my feet.

And catching up is easy. Democracy and free inquiry, free thought. Don't like it, stay undeveloped.

I'm saying that we're going to run into population problems before we have the technology to actually cure aging. We're going to hit population problems within the next 50-100 years, which is going to be way before we have people living to 200. And so we're going to have to deal with it before we have to deal with everyone living to age 1000. Presumably the issue of overpopulation will be resolved in a 100 or 200 years by a "data bank of human consciousness." You can live you're life the way you want to, but when you feel like you've had enough, you transfer you're thoughts into a giant computer and live in the virtual community there, where you would essentially have the powers of a god (in that virtual universe). There are certain people who think this will happen sooner rather than later, and that we're never going to have to deal with overpopulation problems in the future.

I am all for free thought and free inquiry, not so much for "democracy" which seems to be a poor shadow of what it should be.

I think you will find that as technology develops, so does our capacity to actually exist in a communally governed society. We will eventually develop a secure enough internet protocol that we can vote online. Any question of state can be answered by the people, not by those elected by the people. We could presumably have a vote every day, or at least every week, on policy decisions and such, which means it would actually be the will of the people, not the will of the will of the people.

Democracy seems to be the way of the future (not that I'm saying there isn't anything better) and with technological advances it will seem all the more true.

[klizzle]

Originally Posted by Jimbozu

I'm saying that we're going to run into population problems before we have the technology to actually cure aging. We're going to hit population problems within the next 50-100 years, which is going to be way before we have people living to 200. And so we're going to have to deal with it before we have to deal with everyone living to age 1000. Presumably the issue of overpopulation will be resolved in a 100 or 200 years by a "data bank of human consciousness." You can live you're life the way you want to, but when you feel like you've had enough, you transfer you're thoughts into a giant computer and live in the virtual community there, where you would essentially have the powers of a god (in that virtual universe). There are certain people who think this will happen sooner rather than later, and that we're never going to have to deal with overpopulation problems in the future.



I think you will find that as technology develops, so does our capacity to actually exist in a communally governed society. We will eventually develop a secure enough internet protocol that we can vote online. Any question of state can be answered by the people, not by those elected by the people. We could presumably have a vote every day, or at least every week, on policy decisions and such, which means it would actually be the will of the people, not the will of the will of the people.

Democracy seems to be the way of the future (not that I'm saying there isn't anything better) and with technological advances it will seem all the more true.

The transferring thoughts on to a computer is interesting, but I'm not sure you can destroy the brain as a material without destroying the consciousness that it holds. If a copy of you is made and the original destroyed (aka teleportation & what I think you're suggesting), to everyone else it seems like you're fine, but from your perspective you just died. At least, that's what I'm taking from what you said. Either way, we'll run out of places to store these brains, so I think the eventual answer would to be sterilize large portions of the race since we'll be living forever anyways.

[Jimbozu]

Originally Posted by klizzle

The transferring thoughts on to a computer is interesting, but I'm not sure you can destroy the brain as a material without destroying the consciousness that it holds. If a copy of you is made and the original destroyed (aka teleportation & what I think you're suggesting), to everyone else it seems like you're fine, but from your perspective you just died. At least, that's what I'm taking from what you said. Either way, we'll run out of places to store these brains, so I think the eventual answer would to be sterilize large portions of the race since we'll be living forever anyways.

Yah lol, we would definitely have to broaden our knowledge of consciousness and how the brain works before we could possibly accomplish that. There's a project underway that is attempting to create a complete computer model of a human brain to learn more about the way neural networks operate. I feel after a few more projects like this one we will have developed a computer intelligence equal to that of a human, as well as understand how neural networks process information and create thought.

What I imagine as the stepping stone between living in an entirely virtual world and the physical one would be some sort of digital clone of your personality. Both you and the digital version of you are directly linked so everything that one thinks the other thinks. You would exist in a digital world as well as our physical world. As you adjust to the digital reality you could migrate more and more towards that "life."

If you think about it, living in a digital enviornment would be much more enjoyable. You're processing speeds would be exponentially higher, you're sensations would all be much clearer (and presumably more vivid), and you would have the power of a freaking god... lol.

[Maitereya]

We cannot halt progress because some parts of the world lag behind. It is their job to catch up, not mine to drag my feet.

And catching up is easy. Democracy and free inquiry, free thought. Don't like it, stay undeveloped.

im guessing you didnt put much thought into that answer?

if the 3rd world is as smart as the 1st there will be more competition to develop new technologies. since there are less smart people there are less technologies. as for their job to catch up, most are in debt (world bank loans) and the subsidies that the 1st world provide to its own make the 3rd world even weaker.

as for catching up being easy, define easy. if by easy you mean not enough to provide the citizens basic needs like water or a meal per day, roads or electricity. easy meaning 1/3 of whatever 3rd world nation's gdp goes to paying the debt. i suppose thats easy, easy as pie.

Fresh water will be the new "black gold".

there are technologies to filter water, but people think its gross that shit and piss water is turned into drinking water. most water is rinsed to standard then drained into a river/aquifer. then river/aquifer water is sucked back up and treated more. there is technology to have ample water for everyone, but its not implemented because its easier and unnecessary.

as for transfering mind to computer: i wonder if the mind is transfered while still alive if we would do the same thing in the computer world as the real world. assuming that we werent given god powers just normal human powers. and even if were were allowed godly powers would we be able to access them in this computer world? we would have no idea how to and it would be a complete paradime shift to be able to. imagine having these powers right now, how would you use them? idk just thinking.

i would think this god world would get boring knowing everything and all. id probably create something so i could live without the knowledge of everything, maybe dissolve myself so i could live in billions of separate organisms and feel something other than boring godlikeness. ehh ehhh? anyone.... c'mon this is important stuff.

as for computers that think like minds: the only way to do that is with quantum computers because our brain is so advanced and information is randomly linked with other information as far as storage goes. i remember reading something about quantum computing a while ago, very interesting stuff.