Topic: What is humanity's destiny?

[Finn Solomon]

Hi guys, a complex issue I've been thinking about for the past few weeks.

I've been playing a video game called Mass Effect, set in the 22nd century. Humanity has discovered faster than light travel and have interacted with the galactic community of other sentient species, colonising new worlds. It's a lot more realistic than say Star Trek for example, the writers have managed to create a complex and detailed setting, both technical and cultural.

I'd like to know what are your views on humanity's future. Right now we're approaching a definite turning point in human history, having just crossed the 7 billion population mark. Do you think we're able to invent the technology needed to get off this rock and explore new worlds in time? Will we remain stagnant, or will we wipe each other out? Or maybe the religious texts are true, and we're destined to come to an end one day right here on Earth. What do you think is in the cards for the future?

[Malaysian Kopite]

I don't think we are going to end up destroying each other, and I  think we wont be wiped out by natural disasters as well.

I believe in the next few decades, we'll advance our knowledge greatly and see huge leaps in healthcare, political strategy and even world peace.

I have faith in my species.

[Anywhichwayicant]

We're going nowhere.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

I am not sure why 7 billion is major turning point in all honesty.

The global fertility rate is plummeting.

Oh and the answer is definitely Zombie apocalypse.  Just look at most of the FSG threads on here.  They are among us!

[Finn Solomon]

I am not sure why 7 billion is major turning point in all honesty.

The global fertility rate is plummeting.

It's just an interesting milestone. Even if population levels top off, will one planet be enough to sustain the resulting total?

Anyone have some interesting links to how close we are to inventing anti-gravity, fusion power, FTL travel, things we'll need to get off-planet?

[Seebab]

I don't think we will ever have world peace, but I reckon eventually we will see absolute poverty drop as fertility rates continue to drop. Relative poverty will continue however, just because people are getting much richer in comparison to others.

I think pollution will fall sooner than previously thought and I don't think air pollution will be an issue in the near future as we implement cleaner fuels everywhere. That's the optimist in me.

Other problems will appear as always just like pollution and AIDs became a new problem for us only really in the mid to late 20th century. Not sure what it would be though. Maybe sudden increases in chronic disease rates, which come from people living longer.

As for space exploration, I don't think it will happen as quickly as some would like, not because we won't be able to but because there may be no incentive for it. I reckon it'll be another 200 years or so.

[Lady_brandybuck]

Still stuck on Earth, struggling with overpopulation/pollution.

[scenedesmus]

42

[jaffod]

Could be fucking bleak by 9.30 tonight.

[rob1966]

Mother earth will get pissed off with the human race and obliterate it. Fel sorry for my kids (nearly 4 and nearly 2), cos the future is a bit bleak for them.

[himynameisntmark]

Dont think we'll ever travel faster than the speed of light. I think technology will hit a stopping point in afew years (just a hunch), we'll be stuck with the threat of nuclear war for quite a while (just as other countries gain the technology available). As others have said there is no incentive to travel far in space, sad but true. Dont get me wrong, id love to see a man on Mars, but it wont happen in my life time. Id love to do what Richard Branston (or whatever his name is) is planning to do, just to see the Earth from a different perspective, i think it would be brilliant

[rowan_d]

What I think is most likely: Self-destruction. All it will take is one or two mentalists getting into positions of power, and we're pretty much done considering the weapons they'd be using.

The ideal: Colonisation of planets and galaxies other than this one, with an environment as similar to Earth as possible, or even better.

edit: Shit, didn't realise you meant in the context of a few hundred years. I dount either of my prophecies will be occuring in that timespan, especially the second

[libby_lfc]

42

 

[Andy @ Allerton!]

The modern world leaders are too short sighted to realise that we've got all our eggs in one basket.

Technology though is overtaking them. It started as a pie in the sky (Literally! (c) Jamie Redknapp) idea to establish colony on the moon.

But now new research, probes, analysis and information show that it's going to be pretty easy to establish a meaningful base. There is water and oxygen available on the Moon. From the materials already there, you can construct solar panels and the materials to create structures on the surface (And probably below) and then use the oxygen and water to good effect. From there it becomes self fulfilling. You wouldn't have to build spacecraft to venture further from the Earth when you can build bigger more compelx machines which need less energy (Which can be fueled by unlimited Solar Power) to get into orbit due to the weak gravitiationl pull of the moon. From those you can build orbit fulfilling mechanisms to get the pieces into orbits and then construct them from there. Once orbiting bases are established then the costs and efforts drop even more - you would eventually just need to get the base materials - not constructed materials into orbit as orbital processors and factories could be established. Once you achieve that then there is no reason (Given mankinds patters in every new endevour) to think that the result would not be exponential. Once the materials and means are generally available then people would flock to the mineral and material rich other planets/asteroids and the like and more orbital and then ground based stations could be established. Once you're out of the gravity well in a meaningful way then the vast majority of problems with establishing spaceflight become fewer and fewer.

Most of our problems stem from the deep gravity well we are stuck in and the sheer cost of energy and resources to be thrown out of it. If that energy and those resources came from somewhere else than everything else falls into place.

[Renato]

The moon doesn't have an atmosphere so how would it hold oxygen?
 
And there would be more water in a swimming pool than there would be on the whole moon.

[Corkboy]

If we're still here in a few hundred years time (and I have my doubts), we will most likely have sublimed ourselves into machines which will then do our travelling for us. Physical bodies will only be used for recreation.

[scoresagain]

I'm not arsed, I'm not going to have children and I'll be well dead before the planet dies!

[macca888]

Zombies all the way. Me and the the kids have already discussed barricading ourselves in Costco with all the safety, the food, the comfortable Slumberlux mattresses and a huge array of potential weapons, so you can all fucking find somewhere else to go.

[DaftKev]

I saw a documentary about this years ago. It suggested that we will colonise another planet, where we will communicate by whistling and mostly eat soup.

Oh, and there's going to be some kind of giant metal chicken thing as well.

[Vintage Nerd]

This is deep for RAWK 

I cant see, well not for in the near future, humanity having the capacity to colonizie another planet, also taking into consideration that a planet suitable would need to be found first. Over the next few centuries I can just see the earth becoming more and more populated, and eventually turning on itself, resources will probably start to dry up, leading to bleak outlooks/war etc, and the potential is there, scientifically / biologically / technically for humanity to wipe itself out. With weapons development and chemical threats there is potentially a threat to wipe out significant proportions of the world and it will only take one power crazed person to do so.

So make every day count, yeah? 

[skooma]

Peak Oil will end technological progress as people die off by the billions from lack of food. The global economy will cease to exist.

Technology will regress to a hodgepodge of pre-1800s gear and whatever modern stuff we can get to work on limited solar power. Warfare will be probably go back to horses as we fight for the remaining scraps.

Humanity will stagnate technologically and population-wise until geological or astronomical factors do us in for good. We will never again become industrialized or have a means to travel around the world in a timely manner.

Even if Peak Oil were averted (I don't believe it can be) I don't think we'll ever reach another planet unless we use generational ships. Faster than light travel is physically impossible. Whoever reaches that planet will probably have tons of birth defects and cancer from galactic radiation.

[DaftKev]

and we'll all live happily ever after.

[Alonso]

Moving at the speed of light would take an infinite amount of energy. Moving faster than light is impossible.

It's hard to definitively predict the end of humanity. Regardless, human life will limp out of existence some time in the future. Whether it's in a hundred years or a billion. The expiry of natural resources will be humanity's greatest test in the near distant future. Certain global cataclysms, such as asteroids, are somewhat avoidable. Others such as gamma ray bursts are not.

[Red James]

It'd take a ridiculous amount of time before I think we're capable of colonising other planets and the technolofy required would be immensely advanced. Then again tell someone from 2000 years ago that we would be able to fly and they'd laugh yet no one bats an eye at flying in planes now.

Then again we could be stuck on this little planet until we all die out from killing each other or an apocalyptic event. To be honest that's much more likely with how mad we all are. We can be equally brilliant and mind numbingly stupid.

[Effes]

There will be a war over ownership of the Moon - you heard it here first

[hollger]

Undoubtedly, the zombies are coming.

At least Canada is prepared...

[redbyrdz]

Population will peak and then fall. Overcrowding is putting more and and more stress on humanity, new diseases will kill people off and psychological stress will reduce fertility and the desire to raise children. Civilisation will fall too, we are already seeing a return to religion over science, the demolition of democracy through greed and power. Nothing grows forever.

[The Playmaker]

I saw a documentary about this years ago. It suggested that we will colonise another planet, where we will communicate by whistling and mostly eat soup.

Will it be tomato soup? I really hope so.

[What's the procedure Mr Mod?]

God will cease to forgive our sins, the earth will open, and humans will be consumed to hell.

[Foster]

A few natural disasters going off around the same time could put us in big trouble.

[jaffod]

I saw a documentary about this years ago. It suggested that we will colonise another planet, where we will communicate by whistling and mostly eat soup.

 

[Mouth]

The modern world leaders are too short sighted to realise that we've got all our eggs in one basket.

Technology though is overtaking them. It started as a pie in the sky (Literally! (c) Jamie Redknapp) idea to establish colony on the moon.

But now new research, probes, analysis and information show that it's going to be pretty easy to establish a meaningful base. There is water and oxygen available on the Moon. From the materials already there, you can construct solar panels and the materials to create structures on the surface (And probably below) and then use the oxygen and water to good effect. From there it becomes self fulfilling. You wouldn't have to build spacecraft to venture further from the Earth when you can build bigger more compelx machines which need less energy (Which can be fueled by unlimited Solar Power) to get into orbit due to the weak gravitiationl pull of the moon. From those you can build orbit fulfilling mechanisms to get the pieces into orbits and then construct them from there. Once orbiting bases are established then the costs and efforts drop even more - you would eventually just need to get the base materials - not constructed materials into orbit as orbital processors and factories could be established. Once you achieve that then there is no reason (Given mankinds patters in every new endevour) to think that the result would not be exponential. Once the materials and means are generally available then people would flock to the mineral and material rich other planets/asteroids and the like and more orbital and then ground based stations could be established. Once you're out of the gravity well in a meaningful way then the vast majority of problems with establishing spaceflight become fewer and fewer.

Most of our problems stem from the deep gravity well we are stuck in and the sheer cost of energy and resources to be thrown out of it. If that energy and those resources came from somewhere else than everything else falls into place.

oooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

[Red James]

Population will peak and then fall. Overcrowding is putting more and and more stress on humanity, new diseases will kill people off and psychological stress will reduce fertility and the desire to raise children. Civilisation will fall too, we are already seeing a return to religion over science, the demolition of democracy through greed and power. Nothing grows forever.

Any examples of this? I haven't noticed any major shifts, at least in the west. I wouldn't count the USA as that has always been a mad country.

[Enemy]

Think we're pretty fucked but that doesn't bother me. I'd like the science bods to invent a replicator before I die and the whole world goes to shit though. That would be ace.

[Red_Isle_Chap]

It better be a zombie apocalypse. I've seen all the films/shows, read all the books and playesd all the games. It's the only thing i know how to survive!

In all honesty, there are to all things a cycle. Ours won't be different. Sooner or later we'll be extinct and the next species can evolve to take over. Probably the ants.

[fudge]

oooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

Is that the new ground? nah that'll never be done in just a few hundred years

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Population will peak and then fall. Overcrowding is putting more and and more stress on humanity, new diseases will kill people off and psychological stress will reduce fertility and the desire to raise children. Civilisation will fall too, we are already seeing a return to religion over science, the demolition of democracy through greed and power. Nothing grows forever.

Not really.  The biggest driver in the fall in fertility rates is that women are gaining control of their own bodies. That is happening because religion and superstition is being pushed back. 

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Will it be tomato soup? I really hope so.

Green soup mate.  Green soup.  Highly unlikely to be tomato.  Pea and ham or Asparagus maybe. 

Oh, look, there goes Sputnik again.

[Slick_Beef]

I think George Carlin pretty much nailed it here...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eScDfYzMEEw?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/eScDfYzMEEw?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_GB</a>

[PhilV]

I have always loved the idea of space exploration and even if it's after my lifetime I still hope we follow the path of exploration, but, budgets are increasingly less for space companies, so much so that private companies now seem to be doing more research etc than government space companies... either way I hope something happens, even though it is mostly a big void I am sure there is still lots to discover and/or understand