Two years to the day.

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AuthorTopic: Two years to the day.
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 06:31 Profile #100
quote:
I would guess our end would be either making the Earth to toxic to sustain life before we could migrate to a new planet, or
…
I strongly doubt that intense pollution will be our end. Soon, the main energy source will be nuclear fusion, which does not cause any pollution. The theory of nuclear fusion is correct and simple, and it won't take too many years until we can finally control this power source.

The proof that nuclear fusion is a very sufficient power source is that the hydrogen of the stars depletes after many billions of years.

quote:
he current climate circunstances indicate a great increase in average temperature in the next 100 years. that means changes in the global sea stream, which will cause constant natural floods, droughts, etc.
Pollution, I believe, is not the main cause of the global warming. Notwithstanding, the global warming may still be dangerous, of course. However, the results will improbably be apocalyptic.

I would also like to note that the increase of the sea level is not directly the result of the global warming: It is mainly the result of the thicker atmosphere, which prevents photons from reaching the surface of the oceans and evaporating the water.

I wonder why the destiny of humanity in far future should concern us.

quote:
Humanity will survive forever. We can be devastated, but not destroyed; even against a giant meteor impact we'll have a few years' warning, easily enough time to high-tail it elsewhere with enough colonists to propagate the species and, with any hope, the civilization.
Not necessary. If a gargantuan meteor threatens us, we can attempt to annihilate it.

quote:
Every aspect of life waxes and wanes. There is birth, growth, and finally death. This happens to every natural thing in the universe.
Perhaps it is somewhat simplistic to claim this with so much certainty? You ignored the fact that energy can't be annihilated or created.

Bad-Ass Mother Custer, you seem very confident that humanity is superior and genius. But do you realize that the extremely small number of people who have the intelligence to invent something revolutionary require decennia of study and experience to do so?
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Dolphin
Shaper
Member # 5437
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 09:00 Profile #101
quote:
Originally written by Mind:


quote:
Every aspect of life waxes and wanes. There is birth, growth, and finally death. This happens to every natural thing in the universe.
Perhaps it is somewhat simplistic to claim this with so much certainty? You ignored the fact that energy can't be annihilated or created.
Please give me an example of any organic substance that is eternal.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 09:09 Profile #102
Please forgive me if I sounded arrogant. Arrogance is my most irritating social defection, but it is far more frustrating to me than to anyone else.

Energy can be converted into other forms of energy, but can never be destroyed. If matter combusts (as a side note, the process of combustion is chemical energy), it is converted into warmth-energy and light-energy.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Dolphin
Shaper
Member # 5437
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 09:21 Profile #103
Yes, but that is still a form of transformation. It is not an unchanging state of being.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 09:59 Profile #104
Still, there will always be the same amount of energy in the universe. It was never born, and will never die.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Dolphin
Shaper
Member # 5437
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 10:17 Profile #105
Forgive me for not elaborating on my terminology. Those terms may not be literal. An example would be respiration as “birth and death.” Though it is a constant cycle in has a period of increase and decrease. I have become accustom to using these terms in Buddhist study, and at times forget others think of them in a different sense.

What I mean to say is that humans are in their time of thriving. It is likely that our species will be altered in some way, or replaced by different, but similar creature. This is not to say humans will be extinct in a few years. Changes take millions of years to set in. Perhaps they would happen so gradually we wouldn't even notice.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 10:46 Profile #106
I'm certain humanity will help nature to improve our genetic material very soon, in this matter increasing our intelligence, strength, resistance to diseases, nimbleness, life expectancy, et cetera.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Dolphin
Shaper
Member # 5437
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 13:42 Profile #107
Perhaps, but at what point are we no longer human?

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Student of Trinity
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 13:58 Profile #108
When we can't mate with ourselves?

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It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Stugri-La
Guardian
Member # 3521
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 18:18 Profile #109
Well, more precisely, once the mating of a member the hypothetical evolved species with an ordinary human can no longer produce a fertile offspring.

Humanity is such a versatile species that at the moment we are under no real selective pressures. I highly doubt that the situation on Earth will ever turn so dire as to exert substantial selective pressures on human populations.

[ Tuesday, April 12, 2005 18:22: Message edited by: This Glass Is Half Stugie ]

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Stughalf

"Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed."- The Bhagavad Gita.
Posts: 1798 | Registered: Sunday, October 5 2003 07:00
Thuryl
...b10010b...
Member # 869
 written Tuesday, April 12 2005 18:20 Profile Homepage #110
In practice there's seldom a well-defined point at which speciation occurs; different populations just get increasingly incompatible over time. Dogs are all considered members of the same species even though it's physically impossible for some breeds to mate with some other breeds except by artificial insemination.

quote:
Humanity is such a versatile species that at the moment we are under no real selective pressures. I highly doubt that the situation on Earth will ever turn so dire as to exert substantial selective pressures on human populations.
Not true. As long as people with some alleles are reproducing better than people with others, selection's going on. Selective pressures may have changed a lot, but that doesn't mean everything is selectively neutral.

[ Tuesday, April 12, 2005 18:40: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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My BoE Page
Bandwagons are fun!
Roots
Hunted!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Student of Trinity
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
 written Wednesday, April 13 2005 16:51 Profile #111
In practice, speciation does not occur. :P

That is, I don't think we've ever actually seen it occur anywhere. So we're talking pure theory here.

I'm sure it does occur, and for what it's worth I'd also bet that it occurs gradually. But I believe that the precise mechanisms of speciation are still a subject of debate in evolutionary theory.

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It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Thuryl
...b10010b...
Member # 869
 written Wednesday, April 13 2005 23:27 Profile Homepage #112
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

In practice, speciation does not occur. :P

That is, I don't think we've ever actually seen it occur anywhere. So we're talking pure theory here.
True, we haven't actually seen it occur within recorded history, but we can see likely transitional forms, such as ring species (groups of subspecies throughout a geographical area, which are cross-fertile with species living nearby but sterile with species living farther away).

As for the mechanism, the consensus is that different mechanisms apply in different cases. A few probable candidates have been identified: changes in responsiveness to pheromones, changes in mating rituals, physical changes to the genital organs (particularly relevant in insects, which often have oddly-shaped genitals), genetic or chromosomal changes that lead to non-viability of hybrids, etc.

[ Wednesday, April 13, 2005 23:31: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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My BoE Page
Bandwagons are fun!
Roots
Hunted!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
spy-there
Agent
Member # 1993
 written Monday, April 18 2005 07:12 Profile #113
quote:
Originally written by Bad-Ass Mother Custer:

...
Someone like us, or a recorded voice forever floating out of human lips, will survive forever, fighting off the fire and the cold and the entropy, long after everything we have ever concieved of is dead and gone and pulverized into atoms floating in a lukewarm sea spanning the cosmos.

It is the destiny of our race to dance on eternity's grave.
...
Great Spirit, I am unworthy;
My species has disgraced itself.
Of all the species that live, or have ever lived,
Mine is the lowliest.
Lower than the flowers who fill the air with sweet pollen,
Lower than the trees who encircle the Earth with their roots,
Lower than the insects, rulers of Earth
Since the beginning of time,
Lower than the darting fish,
Lower than the soaring birds,
Lower than the four-legged creatures,
Who are the beating heart of the living Earth.

Great Spirit, my shame is as deep as the ocean,
And my sadness is unbearable.
I pray for enlightenment,
But fear that my prayer is too late.
Great Spirit, if this be so, then I pray for extinction.
Let my species become extinct, and vanish from the Earth.
Let my loins be barren,
Let my seed not sprout,
Let the race of men fall like leaves.
Let my fields grow wild,
Let my fences crumble,
Let my cities turn to dust, and become forests.
Let the grass drink my blood;
Let my body be food for worms.
Great Spirit, let me die, that the Earth may live.

**This is a prayer from Chris Korda.

v_v Sorry to have revived the topic but I had to do it ...

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^ö^ vegetarians are sexy.
Posts: 1420 | Registered: Wednesday, October 2 2002 07:00
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Monday, April 18 2005 07:30 Profile #114
Unquestionably, our race is very deleterious.

However, in future, humanity will become very beneficial to nature. One day, our race will terrasformate other planets, enabling life to populate them.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Dolphin
Shaper
Member # 5437
 written Monday, April 18 2005 08:09 Profile #115
We're sure not doing it now.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Inferior
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
 written Monday, April 18 2005 09:15 Profile #116
We might be doing soon.

If the atmosphere of Mars was more densely polluted, the days there would be less warm, and the nights there would be less cold.

Also, analyzations have indicated that there is ice under the surface of the planet.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 18 2005 12:19 Profile Homepage #117
I don't see how terraforming Mars is good for Earth. Even if we had the resources and the ability to fix all the damage we've done to Earth, I very much doubt that it would be funded (assuming the cost is enough to require substantial investment on a national or international level) until a crisis situation arose.

—Alorael, who doesn't buy into the speciation by genetic engineering argument that says that humans will divide into the superhumans with money to augment themselves and the poor who remain ordinary. Sure, that might eventually happen, but to the point of speciation? It seems doubtful.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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