The humans species: 50,000AD

CrazyRabbit · 03-05-2012 12:31PM #1

The 'Evolution and a supreme being' thread got me thinking...to what extent will humans have evolved if we survive for the next 10,000 or 50,000 years?

We know that intelligence is increasing slowly with each generation. Will this continue at the current rate, speed up, or reach a plateau? Exactly how smart can we get?

Now add in the fact that we are very probably, at most, only a few decades away from having bionic/compulter implants as the 'norm', and that these could greatly affect our lifespan, intelligence, abilities etc. Could we eventually become more machine than biological?

What about social evolution? Will we socially always lag behind our tecnhnology (i.e, always have technology that we do not use responsibly)?

FatherLen · 03-05-2012 12:33PM

we will be able to breath under the duvet for longer and climb walls with our arses

Where To · 03-05-2012 12:34PM

Will we still like cake?

kincsem · 03-05-2012 12:35PM

The hot ones will look like Cartman in South Park, the others like Homer Simpson when he stayed at home and put on a bit of weight.

Then the guys will look like ...

krudler · 03-05-2012 12:36PM

comic book super powers will be attainable. mmm, spidey-sense

kincsem · 03-05-2012 12:37PM

Jabba the Hutt

golden lane · 03-05-2012 12:37PM

and look like chinese........with massive walls, everywhere...

Pushtrak · 03-05-2012 12:38PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

We know that intelligence is increasing slowly with each generation.

As a species? I'm not really sure that is the case. Maybe I think this because of the continual proliferation of nonsense. Our technology is certainly constantly improving, though, that isn't debatable.

Well, one of the most interesting things to look at for the future will be the use of nanomachinery, and its utility in things like, say medicine, for one. Not that nanotechnology would be limited to that, there are other areas that will reap just as much benefit from them.

It will be interesting what comes of genetically modified crops, and how it could be a solution to food crisis.

Obviously, it will be interesting what the landscape will be like in terms of what form of energy we will be using as we adapt to renewable energies.

This could be a great thread.

GordonCole · 03-05-2012 12:38PM

The human being finds himself, or herself, in the middle. There is as much space outside the human, proportionately, as inside

RichieC · 03-05-2012 12:38PM

we will get increasingly stupid from here on out. At some point we will no longer be able to maintain nuclear reactors and we will go extinct.

krudler · 03-05-2012 12:39PM

ever see that movie Idiocracy? thats the future

the purple tin · 03-05-2012 12:39PM

Well humans might get smarter but I don't think they will ever lose their violent/aggressive streak. The biggest breakthroughs in technology will all be weapons based.

RichieC · 03-05-2012 12:40PM

the purple tin wrote: »

Well humans might get smarter but I don't think they will ever lose their violent/aggressive streak. The biggest breakthroughs in technology will all be weapons based.

So we're told by those with an interest in maintaining their profits.

im invisible · 03-05-2012 12:41PM

just watch the first few mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMkrJOOTjj4

kincsem · 03-05-2012 12:43PM

The lower life forms will have Phds. My guess is people will be educated more intensively, and in narrower specialisations. Then people will not have a clue what other people are talking about ... just like After Hours.

tony_soprano · 03-05-2012 12:48PM

in thirty thousand years , some of us will probabley be living on pandora , having destroyed mars ten thousand years previous , earth by that stage will be one big rubbish dump with little robots picking up trash

im invisible · 03-05-2012 12:52PM

how is it may 2012 and no-one had the name tony_soprano registered before now?

Catch_22 · 03-05-2012 12:53PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

We know that intelligence is increasing slowly with each generation.

dont confuse education and intelligence

tony_soprano · 03-05-2012 12:58PM

im invisible wrote: »

how is it may 2012 and no-one had the name tony_soprano registered before now?

cause they know better

Sykk · 03-05-2012 01:17PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

We know that intelligence is increasing slowly with each generation.

No... Technology has improved which has made things easier for us to understand the sciences, doesn't make us more intelligent than people 200 years ago, just more open to learning and researching.

opinion guy · 03-05-2012 01:20PM

Kids, we know a song about this don't we ?
Lets all sing along.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic

Wibbs · 03-05-2012 01:24PM

Barring catastrophe I reckon we'll be more "machine" than man and sooner than 50,000 years too. Functionally immortal with IQ's beyond today's comprehension with abilities to change our environments, indeed the very building blocks of existence in unimaginable ways. The "human" experience will become very different. There may be some "wild" humans around who don't plug into this, though will still likely be living significantly longer than we do today. It'll sneak up on us. Just like computers and the interweb we all(in the west) have access to did.

Laika1986 · 03-05-2012 01:25PM

Read this OP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

Not sure how long it would take but thats the way we'l probably progess. oh and moon discos will probably be quite popular

Wibbs · 03-05-2012 01:25PM

Sykk wrote: »

No... Technology has improved which has made things easier for us to understand the sciences, doesn't make us more intelligent than people 200 years ago, just more open to learning and researching.

...which in turn makes us smarter. Hunter gatherers around today have lower IQ's on average, even when adjusting for culture.

Nothingbetter2d · 03-05-2012 01:27PM

if humans do live in colonies in space they will all look different due to adaptations to suit the colony they live on. people on planets with higher gravity will look shorter but stouter... people on planets with low gravity will be taller and thinner

also how their eyes work will change too... people on planets further from the sun or orbiting red dwarf's (proxima centauri being one such nearby red dwarf star) will have bigger eyes to process more light then those on planets with hotter stars than our sun

batm!ke · 03-05-2012 01:28PM

Laika1986 wrote: »

Read this OP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

Not sure how long it would take but thats the way we'l probably progess. oh and moon discos will probably be quite popular

It doesn't have a diagram or even a pie chart so for that reason I'm out.

nozzferrahhtoo · 03-05-2012 01:35PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

The 'Evolution and a supreme being' thread got me thinking...to what extent will humans have evolved if we survive for the next 10,000 or 50,000 years?

To be pedantic, admittedly my forte, Evolution does not actually work like that. We are not evolving "towards" anything in particular. It is a common error to think of evolution as always heading towards a "better" version of something that exists now. In fact evolution and selection is based entirely on the environment the organism is in which is also constantly changing. As we can not really predict what the world will be like in 50,000 years we also can not really predict what evolution will do in that time either.

Often quite the opposite happens. Brains can get smaller, some creatures which evolved eyes lose them again later, things that evolved towards size go smaller and vice versa, some birds become flightless.... so on so on.

Essentially evolution selects a best fit for a current environment and it will always tend towards a simpler version requiring less materials and energy. If eyes, intelligence, strength or size are all redundant in a particular environment... to name but a few... they will tend to evolve out.

While Idocracy does paint a bleak future (both in terms of our evolution and in terms of hoping Hollywood movies will ever improve) where the stupid far out reproduce the intelligent... leading to a natural evolution towards stupidity over time.... it is just a movie thankfully and we can hope such a thing is not really our future.

In terms of evolution we have used our technology to counteract much of natural selection and so there is little reason to expect much "natural" evolution except over extended periods. Things that would have been massively selected against for example are now alleviated using our technology. One must only look at the contributions of those like Stephen Hawking to the world despite his massively debilitating illness to see this. One might expect, as technology does much of our work for us, that we will become a physically weaker species.

From what I have read on the subject most of the evolution people in the field picture for our species over the coming ages tends to be related to how our immune systems will evolve in the constant war against bacterial and viral evolution. A war we have no firm reasons for expecting to win without the aid of technology.

Canis Lupus · 03-05-2012 01:35PM

I think in 100/150 years we'll be going backwards. We might discover some new funky technology but realise too late that we've wasted too much of the worlds resources to put it into effect (never mind the fact that I think we need to work together as a planet to survive as a species and I don't see that happening as well till it's too late). I reckon our childrens children will read in history books about how now was the golden age of technology.

From an evolutionary POV if we lived that long I don't think we'll have changed much apart from maybe little things. From an aesthetic side you generally won't find 4 armed people getting much sex and thus passing on their 4 armed genetic traits for the betterment of humankind.

Stiffler2 · 03-05-2012 02:08PM

Tbh, I'm surprised we've survived for this long.

We won't be around in another 5,000 years though unless we can find another Earth

spankmaster2000 · 03-05-2012 02:28PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Now add in the fact that we are very probably, at most, only a few decades away from having bionic/compulter implants as the 'norm'

I sincerely doubt that!
Where was my jetpack and hover-car back in 2000? I don't think these advances are often as close as people seem to accept. Eventually; maybe yes; but "a few decades"; no.

I'd say that over the next few thousand years you'll be likely to see things like far less people having wisdom teeth; smaller jawbones/muscles (from eating processed food); and overall less body hair, etc.

opinion guy · 03-05-2012 02:37PM

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

I sincerely doubt that!
Where was my jetpack and hover-car back in 2000? I don't think these advances are often as close as people seem to accept. Eventually; maybe yes; but "a few decades"; no.

BBC news TODAY (I love the irony :pac:):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17936302

The future of humanity (it has already begun):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyenRCJ_4Ww

The humans species: 50,000AD

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