serious-ish WMG on the future of humanity

any guesses on how society and humankind will develop is going to be a potshot at best. I mean, could anyone have predicted the impact (or even the development) of the internet 50 years ago?

anyways, here's a few predictions I have:

• exoskeletons to enhance regular human movement and prosthetics that can match or exceed normal human performance will be available within 50 years.
• Research on the human brain, combined with continuing advances in computing technology, will allow us to create an artificial brain that matches the human one in both processing power and size within the next 150 years. Like Ghost In The Shell.
• The fastest method of developing a cure for (old age) death is to simply replace the entire human body with an artificial one. Possible very soon after the above point is discovered.
• FTL travel, if it's ever discovered, will always remain so cost-prohibitive that the "slow method" of travel will always be preferred for transportation. that is, there's no point in strip-mining a planet and shipping the resources on FTL travel, it'll always be delivered the slow way.
  • If (reliable) FTL travel is never discovered, the slow method using artificial bodies that never age will be the best method for colonizing other planets outside our solar system.
  • Combined with the above points, the fastest and cheapest interplanetary travel method will simply to buy a spare artificial body on another planet and upload your personality/identity to it, if it's already been colonized. information travels at the speed of light and it's cheap to send.

edited 12th Jul '11 9:05:33 PM by willyolio

I don't think we'll ever get rid of the question of "So, will this transport my soul?" Though I suppose we could go the Starship Titanic route, and pay people to have their personalities copied into AIs.

I think that when we have mastered genetic engineering, the rich will use their wealth to modify their spawn into a new species with far superior physical and mental capabilities to the rest of humankind. A Master Race will emerge which will rule over the rest of humanity.

...possibly.

Also, on an unrelated note, where did the avatar above mine come from?

Eh, I doubt anyone will go for sufficiently strange adaptions to make interbreeding impossible, thus the good genes will get spread around to all classes. Not to mention there's a fair amount of flow between economic classes and a whole bunch of reasons to keep everyone healthy that'd make it best to have those changes be affordable for all.

Perhaps our society will become totalitarian in an attempt to create equality, kinda like in 1984. But that target will never be possible because as long as people have personalities and careers, we will have inequality.

Webcomics, funny videos, internet memes and so on will be recognized as terribly addictive and dangerous for one's mental health. Future people will think of modern-day Internet about in the same way in which we think of quicksilver-based health tonics

edited 18th Jun '12 4:57:03 AM by Carciofus

Business corporations will take advantage of memes and their ability to spread like a virus to promote their products and services.

You mean it isn't happening already?

I have a quick prediction for that: between 50 and 100 years in the future we'll lose all the basic resources we need to construct our technology. Without simple but very crucial things, we won't be able to replace devices that get broken and in about 200 years, we'll roll back to middle ages. I just don't feel like we can manage to get out of our planet and search for resources out there before they run out here.

It's possible, but there are a few things to consider. First, once production of a resource (say, silver, the best conductor) peaks and then declines, the price will steadily increase, thus lowering demand and making production more likely to level off. While this still results in us having to make do with less resources, it avoids the sudden crash that would come if production were to proceed at full capacity and then suddenly hit a dead stop.

Nevertheless, at that point we'd have to either figure out how to make do with less, or come up with an alternate (and probably synthetic) resource that is more efficient and plentiful. There's always someone looking to stay ahead of the curve, you know.

edited 16th Sep '13 6:50:30 PM by BrainSewage

We'll Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence! There's a reason so many people are going there, it's hardly ever shown because it makes Earth look bad.