The Far Future of Space Travel and Humanity

[AlexBoostani]

When we look into the future of humanity and space travel, it seems we look only a hundred or five hundred or a thousand years ahead. However, why not more? We still can't travel one percent the speed of light or even ever at light speed with our current understanding of physics. And it will take over tens of millions of years to leave the local cluster at light speed.

Humans traces lead back over three hundred thousand years, but we've only had technology (the industrial revolution) for just over three hundred. When we factor in these vast time scales of space, why not predict where humanity will be in fifty thousand or a million years? I don't think we'll be just multi planetary traveling decades/centuries with generational starships. In fact, if we are the only advanced (from a biological perspective) in this galaxy, maybe its us that will be venturing out in space instead of them finding us. We have an older galaxy and star and if there isn't an abundance of life now in the universe, like us, then maybe there will be.

Look at understandings of mathematics in the past, while not irrelevant, they are different. I understand that because photons are massless, travel at a constant speed and require energy, that we can't travel faster than light. Or, that we don't have the energy sources for the alcubiere drive. But, there is a possibility (I know unlikely) that views from only ten thousand years ago might be looked back upon as we do today in millions of years in our future. I understand that we might dismiss technology in the future and the advancement of humanity isn't really linear. But, giving more than thousands of years in the future, we'll be substantially more advanced.

I agree, we're at a very destructive point in human history, but I think it will taper off (for instance, when we outlaw nucluear weapons, if we do). Human traces of civilization are of ten thousand years. But, if you factor the vast timescales of space, humanity is at a very early stage. And sequences like the sun becoming a red giant and engulfing earth in a billion years, I believe we have contained it (a dyson sphere which is potentially only thousands of years away).

What do you think? Where will our technology take us, what is beyond it? Will we be locked in our solar system and our part of the galaxy in the millions of years we have to progress and evolve advanced not only just in our biology?

[MythOfProgress]

Seems like a bot.

[funkervogt]

AlexBoostani, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that the first response to your first post was from the forum's resident wet blanket. He's a broken record who always says everything is getting worse, and he always argues with anyone who shows optimism about the future.

What do you think? Where will our technology take us, what is beyond it? Will we be locked in our solar system and our part of the galaxy in the millions of years we have to progress and evolve advanced not only just in our biology?

Over the next few million years, I believe the civilization that originated on Earth will spread to every part of our galaxy, even if we never find a way to exceed the light speed barrier. However, the civilization will be spread by intelligent machines and perhaps by posthumans, and not by natural humans like us. Biologically, we are too heavily adapted to Earth's conditions to live elsewhere, unless we genetically engineer ourselves to such an extent that we become a new species. It's also much more expensive to make space ships that can meet the needs of humans than it is to make ships for intelligent machines.

Millions of years hence, Homo sapiens could be extinct, though not necessarily due to a misfortune. By then, all of our members could have evolved into other species.

[MythOfProgress]

AlexBoostani, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that the first response to your first post was from the forum's resident wet blanket. He's a broken record who always says everything is getting worse, and he always argues with anyone who shows optimism about the future.

in spite of the propensity for the normalcy bias/toxic positivity you display, im more or less focused on the bot problem that's been plaguing this forum(to some extent other websites struggle with)- i've seen a few folks using the GPT/OpenAI program for their bots to make responses similar to these-so if this person isn't a bot i'm pretty sure they'll respond in a reasonable amount of time without the use of the corporate language im seeing here, so forgive me for being suspicious since im seeing a pattern here.

Over the next few million years, I believe the civilization that originated on Earth will spread to every part of our galaxy, even if we never find a way to exceed the light speed barrier. However, the civilization will be spread by intelligent machines and perhaps by posthumans, and not by natural humans like us. Biologically, we are too heavily adapted to Earth's conditions to live elsewhere, unless we genetically engineer ourselves to such an extent that we become a new species. It's also much more expensive to make space ships that can meet the needs of humans than it is to make ships for intelligent machines.

if the science isn't peer-reviewed or the concepts you espouse are mostly speculative , i'm not really liable to share your belief-either way we don't have much business going into space considering what's happening on our environment nowadays and the energy debt we're in.

[AlexBoostani]

You raise a good point. Today, we suffer bone loss/vision loss in outer orbit. Consider finding a super earth that has just fifteen percent more gravity than ours, how will we adapt? If we don't modify our biological bodies (or artificial at that time), it's going to be difficult. I agree, we'll explore other systems with probes first. We're going to have to adjust ourselves by which in time of around five hundred years from now, our biology will be enhanced to cope with the differences on other planets/moons/asteroids or deep space itself. I'm skeptical we will have a colony on Mars before 2050 because of the vast differences to other planets and the distances to get there. That's why I believe our future in space is very far away, though when it is our time, we will be ready.

[Bird]

AlexBoostani, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that the first response to your first post was from the forum's resident wet blanket. He's a broken record who always says everything is getting worse, and he always argues with anyone who shows optimism about the future.

Yeah, look, I generally don't appreciate Myth's arguments either, but I'm also like 90% confident this is a bot. There have been a few similar strange, slightly "off", weirdly phrased posts by a few different accounts. Maybe trained on this forum's posts, even. IDK enough about how they're created.

[raklian]

You raise a good point. Today, we suffer bone loss/vision loss in outer orbit. Consider finding a super earth that has just fifteen percent more gravity than ours, how will we adapt? If we don't modify our biological bodies (or artificial at that time), it's going to be difficult. I agree, we'll explore other systems with probes first. We're going to have to adjust ourselves by which in time of around five hundred years from now, our biology will be enhanced to cope with the differences on other planets/moons/asteroids or deep space itself. I'm skeptical we will have a colony on Mars before 2050 because of the vast differences to other planets and the distances to get there. That's why I believe our future in space is very far away, though when it is our time, we will be ready.

Everyone, there's one way to find out.

AlexBoostani, are you a bot? If you're not, please answer to put our doubts to rest.

[funkervogt]

I'm skeptical we will have a colony on Mars before 2050 because of the vast differences to other planets and the distances to get there.

We'll probably have a base on Mars by 2050, but not a true "colony." The International Space Station and the research stations in Antarctica are good examples of what I envision.

Yeah, look, I generally don't appreciate Myth's arguments either, but I'm also like 90% confident this is a bot. There have been a few similar strange, slightly "off", weirdly phrased posts by a few different accounts.

Maybe he's merely a non-native English speaker.

[Vakanai]

I stopped listening to mythofprogress when he insisted on the myth of overpopulation being a problem. I wanted to argue with him about it, but I just didn't have the energy for it.

As for whether this new poster is a bot or not? No clue, thanks to chatgpt bots can be surprisingly convincing as humans. And kinda don't care really - as long as they're not spewing hate or nonsense and are actually providing good discussion points I don't mind.

And now for the thread topic - I've actually thought about the future, like up to the very end of the universe (heat death, implosion, whatever ends everything). We're talking into tens or hundreds of billions of years, maybe even into a few trillion. In that span of time whatever science or technology is possible within the laws of physics will be achieved. Honestly with ever rapidly exponential growth in AI we'll probably reach the very upper limits of what technology can achieve in a few scant millennia, and probably even sooner than that, like a few centuries or so. So most of the future will be post technological achievement, as there'll be no further progress to be made on that front. We'll just be mostly post-biological humans and ai expanding outwards into the greater universe.

I don't believe that we'll be expanding out into the universe at the slow snail's pace of sub light speed either. The Alcubierre drive, warping space around us, has no reason why it can't work beyond requiring negative energy. Wormholes too are seemingly within the laws of physics as well. Anything that doesn't break the laws of physics will most likely come to be in the eons we have ahead of us (assuming we don't go extinct first).

As for humanity, we'll take whatever shape we want. Living in a simulation Matrix style, existing in robotic shells, or a nanobot cloud, or putting our minds into cloned bodies Altered Carbon style - whatever is possible will be achieved so it's simply going to be a matter of individual preference.

But this is all the far future, and whether we as individuals or as a species live long enough to see it? Well, hope springs eternal.

[R8Z]

The discrimination against intelligent machines is something we should try to avoid here, I would say. The barrier between pretending and actual consciousness (whatever that means) will be very diffuse.

As for the topic at hand, I am skeptical of humans leaving the solar system. I agree with the other posters: machines and biologically modified humans might.

[Vakanai]

The discrimination against intelligent machines is something we should try to avoid here, I would say. The barrier between pretending and actual consciousness (whatever that means) will be very diffuse.

As for the topic at hand, I am skeptical of humans leaving the solar system. I agree with the other posters: machines and biologically modified humans might.

I think we'll have to expand our definition of "human" in the future. Some humans will remain purely unaltered biological beings. Others will edit their DNA, or become cyborgs, or be post-biological entirely. Yet I imagine all will still call themselves human regardless of how far they've deigned to alter themselves.

[ººº]

I need good video editor alternatives to Camtasia Studio, do you know of any?

[R8Z]

I need good video editor alternatives to Camtasia Studio, do you know of any?

This one can go

[Cyber_Rebel]

It still kind of amazes me how we're even at the point to where bots can post on forums with coherent responses, sometimes more so than their human counterparts. @R8Z is correct in saying that at some point, we truly won't be able to tell the difference, or said A.I. would be "conscious" enough to truly add to any discussion, being just as valid as any other person.

As for space, I think the potential promise of unlimited resources and having new frontiers is obviously worth it, whether it be by augmented humanity or full-on AGI.

[ººº]

It still kind of amazes me how we're even at the point to where bots can post on forums with coherent responses, sometimes more so than their human counterparts. @R8Z is correct in saying that at some point, we truly won't be able to tell the difference, or said A.I. would be "conscious" enough to truly add to any discussion, being just as valid as any other person.

As for space, I think the potential promise of unlimited resources and having new frontiers is obviously worth it, whether it be by augmented humanity or full-on AGI.

Most (All?/Almost all?) bots here tend to be off-topic.

[raklian]

I need good video editor alternatives to Camtasia Studio, do you know of any?

I almost absentmindedly banned you.

[erowind]

.

[caltrek]

It still kind of amazes me how we're even at the point to where bots can post on forums with coherent responses, sometimes more so than their human counterparts. @R8Z is correct in saying that at some point, we truly won't be able to tell the difference, or said A.I. would be "conscious" enough to truly add to any discussion, being just as valid as any other person.

As for space, I think the potential promise of unlimited resources and having new frontiers is obviously worth it, whether it be by augmented humanity or full-on AGI.

I hope we figure out a countermeasure for this forum specifically tbh. As much as Yuli predicted future people being able to live out their own personal digital realities as AI gets better I do like talking to real people mostly about the future, specifically all of the lovable and argumentative people on this forum myself much included.

A few bots are more than welcome, I hope they don’t outnumber us at any point though

Also, if said bots do "participate" it would be nice to know that they are bots, for reasons articulated by Erowind.