Subject:
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Re: Future of Humanity (was: lotsa stuff)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:53:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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894 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Low writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Ross Crawford writes:
> > > >
> > > > That may be so, but I would think that most people who have a middling
> > > > understanding of evolution would agree that intelligence has little (if • any)
> > > > effect on it.
> > >
> > > Except to stop it. Which we are in the process of doing, and which was my
> > > original point!
> >
> > We may, in the end, cause our own extinction, in which case I guess you could
> > say we're currently in the process of stopping our evolution, but I think • it's
> > a pretty big stretch. As I've said before, I think humanity will eventually
> > become extinct anyway - so I guess we're witnessing our extinction.
>
> I understood Larry's point differently, in that optimistically we might
> never go extinct (technology propelling us beyond the earth, the solar
> system, the galaxy, the universe...), but in terms of biological evolution
> we're more or less at a dead end (deliberate genetic manipulation aside[1]).
>
> I think speciation of humans on earth is unlikely: if anything we're
> homogenising.
That's possible, but doesn't stop evolution within the species.
> Once we colonise space though I think it's almost inevitable,
> if fertile humans can be conceived and born in non-earth gravity.
We'll need some fairly large colonies before earth becomes expendable (IMO).
> Of course all this flesh based evolution will be academic when we
> collectively upload to the net. Could be useful as a source of new
> personalities I suppose.
"Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. That is
the sound of your death. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson."
ROSCO
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Future of Humanity (was: lotsa stuff)
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| (...) Not with technology advancing at the rate it is. You only need a colony large enough to help raise crechebabies in the case of major disasters, and a diverse enough genetic stockpile to avoid having to waste time working around genetic (...) (23 years ago, 2-Nov-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Future of Humanity (was: lotsa stuff)
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| (...) I understood Larry's point differently, in that optimistically we might never go extinct (technology propelling us beyond the earth, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe...), but in terms of biological evolution we're more or less at a (...) (23 years ago, 30-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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