[Politics] Harbingers of Doom?

[Commander]

Can't agree with your use of the word 'probably', seeing as there is absolutely no evidence of that happening so far. I'll give you 'possibly', at a push.

There is always a 'possibility' that AI will create some kind of unstoppable malevolence, or that messing around with quantum particles will create some kind of anti-matter that will consume the entire universe. Or maybe bashing hadrons together at close to light speed will create a black hole on earth. It could all be possible of course, but 'probable', no. The fact we're so aware of the potential risks with emerging technologies suggests that we aren't going to allow them destroy us.

I would say it's more probable, given current trends, that our technological advances will continue exponentially, as they have been. We will advance to free and limitless energy - knowledge and information, and with it technology, will continue to progress so rapidly that we will eventually become like gods, no longer bound by physical limitations. Space travel will become effortless. Natural disasters, pandemics, comets - none of it will be able to touch us, as we learn to control the physics of the universe and the biology of ourselves, as we ultimately colonise the solar system and the galaxy.

Either scenario is possible. But if your second one is 'probable', then why has nobody else in the Universe done it already? If they had, surely we'd see evidence? I really can't believe we are the first to get to this stage, we've only been here for the last few thousand years of a 4.5 billion year old planet.

I'd argue that there IS evidence of it happening so far. Or at least more evidence for my scenario than yours- the evidence being that there doesn't seem to be anybody else alive out there.

Like with the Jao Pedro situation, I would much prefer to be wrong on this than right though.

 

[Questions]

Whatever it is I’m against it.

 

[London Irish]

You think Humans will be around forever?

Yes but only if we get the guillotine out for the disaster capitalists currently burning up the planet

 

[BLOCK F]

This thread is all a bit Zager and Evans to me.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

You're lucky some of us were dedicated enough to pick up huge amounts of overtime and bonuses to prevent Y2K actually coming true

Worked on contract for NatWest in the lead-up to Y2K. Everything else took second place. Every single weekend was devoted to Y2K testing to the exclusion of all else. Must have cost them tens of millions. Pretty sure I read somewhere that Italy's entire spend on Y2K preparation was something daft like twenty thousand euros

 

[portlock seagull]

I haven’t watched, but surely it’s just classic clickbait?

One for the Why Don’t You gang

 

[Man of Harveys]

This thread is all a bit Zager and Evans to me.

I was thinking more Neil from the Young Ones’ assertion that “this planet’s heading towards oblivion”. But each to their own.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

The dinosaurs never developed technology, after all that time. They were essentially roaming the earth for hundreds of millions of years, achieving nothing, making no advancements, waiting for an inevitable and incredibly rare catastrophic disaster to occur and kill them all, and that's what happened to 75% of all life on earth.

Fortunately though, our ancestors survived, and eventually became human beings. We've always been incredibly creative, using technology since the day we came into being. Considering the history of earth, 20,000 years is 'blink and you'll miss it' ... but what we've achieved in that time is unbelievable really.

But even more incredible, is what we've done in the last 150 years. The rate of technological advancements gets quicker, and quicker, due our capabilities to use technology and information... we were progressing at light speed, but now we're at hyper speed. From flight to space in a matter of decades. Local telephone exchanges, to wireless high speed internet smothering the globe. Electric cars. Robotics. AI. VR. Quantum computing. Nuclear fusion......

The rate of our advancements are showing no sign of slowing. In fact they're getting even faster. It's difficult to really appreciate what is happening, because we're present and living it... but in reality if aliens are watching us, they would be in absolute awe of what we're doing.

Unlike the dinosaurs, we are not just roaming the earth and waiting for our inevitable death... we are becoming so technologically advanced that we will be able to overcome ANY kind of threat to our existence.

You don't know that dinosaurs never developed technology. How much of ours will be left around in 100 million years if we went extinct tomorrow?

 

[Bozza]

I was convinced when I got up on January 1st 2000, that I would be dressing in a silver jumpsuit, my breakfast would be in the form of a pill, I would jump into my hover car to go to work, and my work colleagues would be humanoid robots.


That didn’t happen either.

You must have taken some serious drugs as part of your NYE celebrations.

 

[Gabbafella]

This thread is all a bit Zager and Evans to me.

 

[US Seagull]

I watched a video the other day, don't know if I'll be able to find it again, but the thing that stuck with me at the end is that yes, people are the problem, but they are also the solution. I felt like that was a very hopeful take on the future.

 

[US Seagull]

I was convinced when I got up on January 1st 2000, that I would be dressing in a silver jumpsuit, my breakfast would be in the form of a pill, I would jump into my hover car to go to work, and my work colleagues would be humanoid robots.


That didn’t happen either.

It still rankles that my car is still firmly stuck to the ground.

WHERE IS MY F***ING FLYING CAR!!!

 

[Zeberdi]

We could have already done this and the aliens visiting us allegedly, could be us from the future visiting us in past...
Have you thunk about that puppy

More conspiracy nonsense and fiction akin to Planet of The Apes, Zombie apocalypse….and Independence Day.

As someone said above, fixating on doomsday scenarios is a form of denial that we have the power and the responsibility to change how we live now.

You don't know that dinosaurs never developed technology. How much of ours will be left around in 100 million years if we went extinct tomorrow?

They may have used primitive tools - made from wood or stone - the intelligence of a T-Rex was probably equivalent to a baboon but intelligence isn’t enough, the anatomy of the human brain is designed for complex frontal cortex functions, based on what we know, the dinosaur’s brain wasn’t.

The technology we have today was developed over 2 million years but it is an exponential development unlike the much slower evolutionary development of anatomy/physiology of the animal kingdom.

 

[Insel affe]

The human brain is designed for complex frontal cortex functions.

Have you been to Lancing ?

 

[Zeberdi]

Have you been to Lancing ?

Yes, but believe me Norfolk makes Lancing look like the next generation of superhumans.

I think it has something to do with a history of Norfolk folk not mixing with ‘outsiders’

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Complete bollocks.

 

[dannyboy]

I think this theory makes a lot of sense as to where we are heading and why we see no evidence of intelligent life in the universe when it should be abundant.

Great Filter - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[The Grockle]

I think we underestimate the power of the next few generations. I have faith that my children and grandchildren will strive and fight for an alternative way. I'd argue we have made lots of positive steps in the last 25 years, we've laid the foundations for cleaner energy production, taken the first steps away from combustion engines and new ways of creating wealth has taken some of the power away from the elite. The likes of the rothchilds will be replaced with people like Elon Musk.

Things will definitely get worse before they get better but I honestly believe we're heading a different direction in the long term.

 

[kojak]

your life is a blink of an eye
try not to worry too much

 

[KZNSeagull]

I think this theory makes a lot of sense as to where we are heading and why we see no evidence of intelligent life in the universe when it should be abundant.

Great Filter - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Surely we see no evidence of intelligent life in the universe because we have only really just started looking for it? SETI started "listening" in1992? The observable universe is estimated to be 94 billion light years across - even if any signals are moving at the speed of light we have only "heard" 32 light years worth out of 94bn. That's a miniscule percentage.