It's 20 light years away. It doesn't matter if it harbors life or not. Even if we could travel there at the speed of light, in 20 years biological life will be considered the boring type...
Ok, I'll admit, it is a bit interesting to me while I'm still made of flesh and bone, but I don't believe flesh will even make it to planet Mars let alone a planet 20 light years away.
Flesh made it to the moon, robots made it to mars, let the luddites be happy flesh made it that far. By the time we can send a flesh and body human being to Gliese 581g the idea of sending such a luddite construct will be absurd.
Soon after we have transcended biology we will be interested in finding other super intelligences that are also spreading throughout the universe, not just simple biological matter.
Epoch 6: The Universe Wake up - Patterns of matter and energy in the
universe become saturated with intelligent processes and knowledge.
-Ray Kurzweil The Singularity is Near
Today Gliese 581g can makes headlines. By the time we get there it will be just another planet, unless something transcends beyond it.
4 comments:
You short sighted, ill-informed person! Your comments here make rather shocking assumptions. I do not doubt the union of the technological and the biological, however, no one can say how culture or mind will change as a result! No prediction of the future, regarding technology, has, as yet, been met! Irrespective of this, you are blind to other variables you might not have been aware of or considered. Such as, the advent of technology that cuts through conventional space. This technology is already on the drawing board, first aired in 2006, the ability to use Heim Theory to open a path through Hyperspace. Far fetched, perhaps. But given the relativistic burden of 3D travel, its obvious we'll find shortcuts. So, the flesh will STILL be able to travel to other words.
Finally, just LEARNING that Earth-like worlds are not unique, in its self, changes global thinking and culture (to those that might be closed to such knowledge) and gives us hope that we will find life elsewhere. Nothing can inspire culture and humanity more than that, and no one can predict the knock-on effects of learning this.
I suggest less regurgitation of Ray Kurzweil's predictions (which, I say, are probably) and perhaps a little more thinking out side of the box is needed for you Mr Bilas.
No my friend. You are the master of assumption. You have no problem assuming warp drive is going to be mastered before we transcend biology, and what evidence do you base that on? Well listen up, some of us are already melding with technology; cochlear implants and parkinson's disease implants are here today! And did you know in 1998 Kurzweil made 108 predictions that would happen by the end of 2009, 102 out of the 108 happened! So think about that before you blast away at Kurzweil and go on about how no prediction on technology has ever been met!
I find it hard to say which will come first; the evolution of biology into half-man, half-computer (cyborg?) or being able to bend space for the purpose of transportation. I would argue that technologically speaking we are probably closer to becoming cyborgs, it seems to be where the future is headed. We can't leave our house without our cell phones and soon the joke about your phone being "attached" to you might not be so funny. However, there are several things holding back those advancements besides the technology. What's holding it back is people's unwillingness to give up their flesh and bone bodies for something technologically superior. Perhaps I have some "luddite" characteristics, but I'm not sure I would want to make that change myself. I like my body. I like that it's exclusively mine and I like the fact that it makes me feel human. I think of my body as old car, though it may not be as nice as newer model, it's got character. I like to think that I’m pretty open-minded so I wouldn't say that I would never do it, I'm just saying that it would take a lot of convincing.
My second point is about Gliese 581g. I agree with Jeremiah in saying that it's really not that big of a deal, but for different reasons. So it may be habitable for creatures such as us who require certain elements in the air to breath and live comfortably. Basically, it sounds like another Earth. However, we're assuming that all intelligent life needs the same type of environment as Earth to survive. If you believe in the big bang theory, then when Earth was originally formed it was void of any life and gradually, life evolved and adapted to the Earth's climate and environment. So what's to say that life couldn't do the same on another planet? We have an excess of water on this planet and thus all life on this planet needs water to survive. But maybe Krypton way off on the other side of the universe has an excess of salt, then the living creatures will need salt to survive just like we need water. I just think it's foolish to apply the rules of nature for Earth to the rest of the universe. We're just one planet. That's like assuming that the entire world has the same environment as Luxemburg. Absurd.
Здраствуйте)
Не желаете обменяться ссылками?
Post a Comment