Will the Human Race Survive a 1,000 Years?

[abcrystcats]

OK, so I am wondering .... who thinks we've got over 1,000 years to go before we make ourselves extinct on the Earth?

And if we've got way more time, then what are your premises? Why do you think we will survive the damage we are doing to ourselves and our world?

Please, tell me.

[stilltrucking]

Oh yes we will survive
But not as we know us
And far fewer I think
But with more interesting shapes and colors.

And on different planets too.

Evolution continues
I think the human species is the most adaptable animal in creation.

And a thousand years from now we will be building temples to our last great messanger from God. His Holiness George W. Bush. Cause who knows, maybe he will be judged that way by history.

[stilltrucking]

What about modifying
the limbic system,
the seat of emotions,
genetically?

Zimmerman: Carrying this past the point of pharmacology
to possible genetic modification: In 250 years, we
may understand enough about brain structure and its
connection to genetics to be able to do germline
enhancement of brain function. What about modifying
the limbic system, the seat of emotions, genetically? I
think a strong argument can be made that much human
behavior really rests in the limbic system and not in the
cortex—things like competition, male/male rivalry,
aggression, all sorts of things that may, in fact, lie at the
base of national conflicts and war and other undesirable
things. Is this something we should be looking at? It
seems to me that this is certainly going to be on the horizon
sooner or later.

From Page 106

There is the crux of the problem of this disease called man. I am only speaking for myself. Lord help me Jesus I know who I am.

As a species we have a stone age nervous system and nuclear weapons. I think the bit about fixing our limbic nervous system makes a lot of sense to me. But I am very sick, lord help me Jesus I know who I am. I am a man that spent a sleepless night planing how I was going to kill someone. Just thinking it through cold blooded, no thought of getting away with it, just how to kill him quick with no fuss no muss. I came home and joined a quaker meeting cause I had one brain cell left that could rise above my anger. Not sure if that makes anysense, I know that reptile brain, that cold blooded killer, that Cro-Magnon ghost that haunts my brain stem. Some will find enlightenment, others will have their souls tampered with. Sorry for the ramble.



Cutting and Pasting

The Next Thousand Years

What is your vision of the thousand-year evolution
of our species?

If we survive the next couple of centuries, I think that
within a couple of centuries we will have overcome
death; we will have overcome disease and the worst
forms of poverty; we will have functional backups of
our personality available. We will be well on the way to
colonizing this solar system and probably have colonies
working on the terraforming of Mars and Europa. And
that is just the beginning. If we get that far, then the
really interesting questions begin.

I am hesitant about the ability to make solid predictions.
I think that things will become incomprehensibly
bizarre in some ways as nanotechnology, genetic engineering,
and artificial intelligence begin to converge and
create technological opportunities that are difficult for
us to even think about at this point.

From page 31


So, from our own 21st century human viewpoint,
what is it that we would alter? Clearly, the overall performance
of people is something we desire, because we
desire this in ourselves: to be smarter, quicker, live
longer, healthier, etc. But yet there are other features of
human behavior that rest in the limbic system, the midbrain,
and this is very primitive historically. This is the
seat of emotion and probably most of human behavior.
The limbic system and midbrain of my cat and of myself
are very similar. It is only the cerebral cortex that has
evolved over the last, say, 50,000 years that has enabled
human beings to further the motives directed by the
more primitive parts of their brain. We can say that
wars, aggression, and the kinds of survival instincts that
evolved in primitive animal societies or even early
human societies are now inappropriate for a so-called
civilized planet, so should these things be something we
change as well? Eliminating aggression, enhancing
altruism, reducing greed and selfishness, which seems to
be the dominant value, at least in a capitalist society, and
the results are not particularly desirable for most of us.
But in order for this to happen, there has got to be an
acceptance in our global order, in our governance, so
that any superior minority subpopulation—and it is
going to be a very small minority to begin with—stands
a chance of survival and not being seen as a threatening
alien group and annihilated by the rest of society. As we
see, there is no stability at all in world governance,
national governance—this is a very chaotic thing and
much less predictable than the course of science and
discovery.

Barring that, the only way there is going to be evolution
is to have a cataclysm that reduces the human population
to one percent of what it is, and we are back to
surviving against the elements again.

From page 37





Major Issues Session III


Section V.C.3
Forty Generations (One Thousand Years)


Who will "humans" be a thousand years from now? This
was the key issue facing the workshop participants in
the third major discussion session.
Discussion Leader: Joseph Coates



…jot down on a sheet of paper
the two most significant differences
in humanity…between now
and the year 3000.


The majority of our descendants,
the majority of the continuity of
consciousness that comes from us,
will be based on nonbiological platforms…


…physically/mentally we will
bigger, smarter, healthier, longer
living, etc.; emotionally/spiritually
we will be unchanged.

From page 105
http://www.futurefoundation.org/documen ... ehuman.pdf

[stilltrucking]

Science at the Crossroads

By Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama

This article is based on a talk given by the Dalai Lama at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience on November 12, 2005 in Washington DC

The last few decades have witnessed tremendous advances in the scientific understanding of the human brain and the human body as a whole. Furthermore, with the advent of the new genetics, neuroscience's knowledge of the workings of biological organisms is now brought to the subtlest level of individual genes. This has resulted in unforeseen technological possibilities of even manipulating the very codes of life, thereby giving rise to the likelihood of creating entirely new realities for humanity as a whole. Today the question of science's interface with wider humanity is no longer a matter of academic interest alone; this question must assume a sense of urgency for all those who are concerned about the fate of human existence. I feel, therefore, that a dialogue between neuroscience and society could have profound benefits in that it may help deepen our basic understanding of what it means to be human and our responsibilities for the natural world we share with other sentient beings. I am glad to note that as part of this wider interface, there is a growing interest among some neuroscientists in engaging in deeper conversations with Buddhist contemplative disciplines.

http://www.mundanebehavior.org/index2.htm

[e_dog]

that's easy. No.

will the human race survive a 100 years? thats a good question.

even ten is slightly doubtful. but a thousand? give me a break havent you seen planet of the apes and Sphere? and all that shitz?

[bohonato]

I believe it was the History Channel (but maybe Discovery?) had a recent show that had the top 5 ( maybe...obviously I wasn't paying the upmost attention) most likely disasters to wipe out the human race. To the best of my memory is was an asteroid, a nuclear war, disease (human and natural), and global warming. That's all I watched.

To sum it up, Stephen Hawkings things we'll be around for a couple centuries. I trust Stephen Hawkings.

[mnaz]

Oh, we'll be around, in some mutated form or another. That is, if the asteroid doesn't get us in 2029 (I think it's 2029)... We've always been good at the "quantity-over-quality" thing, and we breed like there's no tomorrow... (ignore the pun)...

[Lightning Rod]

I think that the world will be around for several more billion years, until the sun goes out.

The earth will be fine. We humans may have to adapt, as we always do. There might be ice ages and volcanic periods and global warming or cooling or the dinosaurs might come back. Life as we know it lasts only a few generations, and then there is something else to which we must adapt.

But to think that anything that we can do, pollution or overgrazing or being vain and licentious could have an influence on the greater picture of Earth's survival is just hubris.

[stilltrucking]

http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/cockroach

Yeah if cockroaches can last 350 million years, we can too.
What do they have that we don’t?

I don’t think like Vonnegut yet. I am not hoping for our exstinktion.
But I still believe we are just a blip
in the holy contour of life.

Trouble started when we put ourselves on the top of the evolutionary chart.
"Man everywhere he went he dropped a rich load of knowledge"
We Are All Bozos On This Buss FS All life in G d's image I do believe.

I heard some doomsday posts the last few days, five minutes to midnight.
And climate change 50 years, if the median temp goes up 8 degrees going to be a lot less of us. I am still leaning towards the wimper not the bang.

[whimsicaldeb]

OK, so I am wondering .... who thinks we've got over 1,000 years to go before we make ourselves extinct on the Earth? And if we've got way more time, then what are your premises? Why do you think we will survive the damage we are doing to ourselves and our world? Please, tell me.

I don't think "we" (humanity) is ever going to create any man made event that would be large enough to wipe out the whole of humanity. I think even if we do something that stupid (and yes – we are close); there would still be 'pockets' unaffected, and then 'pockets' less effective. (etc.)

Something else happening to make humanity/life on earth extinct - yes; Our sun will eventually go supernova and all life on this earth will be gone. But that's not for a long time to come.

Asteroids? Perhaps. They’ve happened before; but those are not ‘man-made’ and while they could, but not necessarily, wipe out all human life – they wouldn’t wipe out all of life. Some plant life, amoebas, bacteria etc., would survive and continue to evolve.

Still – with everything that we’ve already done so wrong, and with everything that could still go wrong for/with humanity – we're still here.

I deeply believe/think humanity will be around for the next 1,000 years and better; and I don’t base that on anything more than my own instincts coupled with my knowledge of our past history of being able to adapt and survive and current knowledge of our abilities to raise to the occasions as they present themselves.

Time will tell of course, and I won't be around to read the clock but ... that’s alright. I don’t mind.

[whimsicaldeb]

Oh ... ps
(you know me and my fondness for strange articles!)
This guy gives us 100,000 more years! But he also has his own theory of what humanity will be like in 1000 years:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6057734.stm
Human species 'may split in two'
Different human sub-species predicted by Dr Oliver Curry



Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

Race 'ironed out'

But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.

Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.

Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.

However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.

Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.

Receding chins

Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.

Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.

There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.

Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.

The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.

"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.

He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

[e_dog]

f cockroaches can last 350 million years, we can too.
What do they have that we don’t?

Exoskeleton and a high surface-area-to-volume ratio.

Face it. We're screwed.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge. The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

Yes, sounds reasonable. That "dim-witted underclass" will then be comprised by theorists from the London School of Economics.

[abcrystcats]

Hah!! You guys (and gals, no sexism meant!) are GREAT!

Lots of interesting matierial here.

LR-- you're brilliant, but I think you missed the question. I know the Earth will go on and I even know that life in some form will flourish on for millions or billions of years. I was talking about human life -- this species.

Do you really think we'll just keep adapting and be here anyways? I have a hard time with that, but lots of information has been given, so I'll go through it ....

Deb:
LOL!!! That look exactly like my ex-neighbors!! I'm cracking up!

As for the split, I think Dr. Curry has the cart before the horse.

We are already starting to suffer from the effects of technology. We've become less able to relate to each other. We don't need our legs, either. I use my arms and hands a lot more than my legs these days.

I don't think humans will voluntarily select, genetically, for the strongest and fittest and it takes great imagination for me to believe that we will split along physical lines the way we already are starting to, intellectually. Sex is still an overwhelming interest and keeps attracting new but intellectually challenged blood into the fold. I think we will stay physically the same. I don't think physical and intellectual superiority correlate in any way, anyhow. Lots of smart people are really weird, physically. LOL, I am not making sense, so go for the flaws in this!

As for your other post -- I am just going with my gut here. I don't expect a "cataclysmic" event to wipe us out. I expect a lot of climate changes mostly caused by carbon monoxide emissions, crop failures and epidemics. I think that some bug will come along and wipe us out, ultimately. We will set the stage for all this and then it will just happen. It will happen eventually -- probably sooner than later. We kind of all know this stuff is going to happen, but we have high hopes that some members of the human species will survive it. Where are we getting this hope? Movies? I am not saying it's impossible that some people could survive, but right now we are witnessing the destruction of many, many species. How many tigers left in the WORLD? How many wolves left in the WORLD? And these are cool, sophisticated predators. Very resilient survivors. If not them, how hard is it to imagine that one day WE will be gone from the face of the Earth?

We are too arrogant about ourselves. We are more vulnerable to our own depredations than we think.

Who said this?

much human
behavior really rests in the limbic system and not in the
cortex—things like competition, male/male rivalry,
aggression, all sorts of things that may, in fact, lie at the
base of national conflicts and war and other undesirable
things. Is this something we should be looking at?

you are right, but what do we do about it? We are prewired for aggression. I think we are losing the race to conquer ourselves in this area. We may end up being the ultimate victims of our limbic systems ....


We may be the "most adaptable" but that does not make us infallible, or not subject to extinction.


I still think we are getting dangerously close.

Or am I taught to think this way? I remember the Cold War era. Everyone lived in fear of The Bomb ....

I know the weather, and I know the behavior of my fellow humans ....

[stilltrucking]

The quote was from the 210 page pdf file that I posted the link to
it was by
Dr. Burke Zimmerman
President
BKZ Inc.
Oakland, CA

This one is by
Dr. Athena Andreadis
Associate Director of
Neurobiology of Developmental
The Shriver Center, Univ.
Waltham, MA
From Page 91 of the same pdf file
Andreadis:

It is worth pointing out that there are two
types of emotions. There are the emotions that are your
limbic system: fight, flight, food, reproduction. Those
bypass your cortex. You cannot think about them; it is
not “by committee”; you have to react immediately, otherwise
something will eat you.
The others cannot be distinguished from thoughts;
they go through the cortical committee, and it decides
what you are thinking and it makes the choices for you.
Those are much harder to deal with. The other four, I
agree with you: already we can take care of those, to
some extent.

I tell ya cat it is a strange new world, have you ever heard of a class of chemicals called Phthalates? They are the number one suspect in the world wide die off of frogs.

Also in changes in the reproductive systems of humans. The feminization of boys, the earlier onset of pubescence in girls.

How environmental pollutants are causing reproductive problems

Across the US, female animals exposed to toxic chemicals are suffering from a flurry of health problems, from shrunken ovaries to spontaneous abortions. What does this mean for female humans?

In California, female sea lions are spontaneously aborting their fetuses. In the Great Lakes area, mother gulls are sharing nests and raising eggs together because their male partners have forgotten how to parent. In upstate New York, female frogs have as much testosterone in their bodies as males.
Scientists say these aberrations all share a common link: exposure to toxic chemicals called "endocrine disruptors," which pollute the air, soil and water.
"At the rate this pollution is going, we will likely have population decreases in many wildlife species, especially amphibians and fish that are more susceptible to toxins because their skin is constantly exposed to these chemicals in an aquatic environment," says Sarah Janssen, a science fellow at the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council. "These animals serve as canaries in the coal mine for human females, teaching us how synthetic chemicals might affect our nervous system development, immune function, fertility and other health outcomes."
In the past six decades, U.S. manufacturers have unleashed an estimated 100,000 synthetic compounds into the environment.

http://www.eartheasy.com/article_pollut ... uction.htm

I worked as a polymer research chemist back in the early sixties when a lot of new plastics were coming on the market, containers for milk and soda water. I remember how arbitrary the FDA rules were, everytone new that the plastizers would leach out into the liquid in the bottles. But no one knew how much was safe, did not kill a rat so it must be ok …yada yada… No seriously even when they started testing more vigorously the tests were done in isolation. They never mixed up a stew of two or more chemicals to see what effect they had in combination. Do you follow me here? It seems that one way or the other we will be dealing with male aggression and competition.

God is dead, Nietzsche is dead andDarwin is dead.
We have become unconscious creators of future mankind.

The limbic system is very interesting. I got a thread somewhere on S8 called Maybe The Dead Do Know Something, about the limbic system, some scientists think it is the source of our near death experiences. I'll find the link later.

[mousey1]

1000 years? That's probably pushing it.

Let's see

I'll make a small but by no means all inclusive list

garbage - can we learn to live atop a seething, steaming, oozing heap of it?

China - 'nuff said.

global warming - oh my aching fucking head!

water - potable water - clean pristeen soothe the back of my throat sweet water water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

food - pure, munchable, chomp chomp eat 'em up goodness with a crunch - pesticide rich, E. coli plentiful, mercury still rising.

sun - shine - what's left of it, the wee bit that oozes past the putrid yellow slash gray smog haven clouds with no rain in 'em burn your skin spf 90 grim.

oceans - where all the fishies and their kissing kin frolick glassy eyed amid drift nets, swim rings around whales and dolphins, their cross-eyed confusions setting sail bouncing sonic radar tales of washed up beaching delight...and medical waste and every other sinkable hideable wretchable remnant of human life.

a thousand years? yes, maybe if there is some profit in it other than...

money - the root of all evil, paving our fat assed way to heaven sink or swim.