We, 10 000 Years into the Future.
Have you ever thought about what people might be like in 10 000 years? Imagine, if we didn’t go extinct by then, either by our own hand or by that of nature.
Let’s forget for a moment about all the nuclear and biological weapons, nanotechnological warfare, asteroids, supervolcanoes, extreme climate change, and possible epidemics. The line between the possible and the impossible is beginning to blur, magic seems no longer impossible. The more we know, the more we recognize how little we know. Imagine going back two-hundred years into the past and claiming that one day, we would soar through the skies and even outer space, dive to the bottom of the deepest oceans, or trade in cryptocurrency.
The sorts of feats we accomplish and the reality we experience would seem like magic to someone living long ago but it’s a result of the scientific method. Before this methodical procedure at solving nature, we had things like alchemy and sorcery, but there were far from sufficient and as much as they satisfied our imagination, they couldn’t satisfy our curiosity. We kept looking for answers and finally, we got it: proposing a hypothesis, an idea, and then trying to prove or disprove it using other established ideas or knowledge.
We went from relatively simple designs – spear, horse and chariot, and shouting very loudly to fighter jets, rocket travel, and mobile phones. The scientific method isn’t perfect, and we are the limiting factor. Our capacity for theory eventually runs out but replenishes with time. We thought there was nothing beyond the atom and then we discovered its nucleus and electrons. Was that it? Yeah, for a while and then smash, the nucleus contained protons and neutrons. This sort of process happens repeatedly, and it seems to accelerate across a great and increasingly specialized subject variety.
The technological intrusion into the flesh seems to be the game changer for humanity. Those who couldn’t walk may now walk with prosthetics usually made of metal and plastic. A decent hand can now be built for those who wish to regain some of their lost ability and self. Pacemakers allow those whose hearts cannot beat to continue beating. In addition to restoring and sometimes improving our bodies with metal and plastic, we have made some serious progress in the emergence of restoring and improving the mind.
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is another maturing field and many think that we are on the cusp of bringing one into this world. Before a bunch of code and therefore software becomes sentient, we’ll have to work on the hardware otherwise we might create something more analogous to a virus. Having a body makes us appreciate ourselves and other things that have bodies, that are being. For without a body, there is no being, there can be no sentience.
We do not know ourselves very well. We still do not really understand how our mind works and what conscience is. We are able to think and feel in a very complex ways and this is why I think we’ll skip making a copy of the human condition, we are simply going to augment what nature already developed over 12.5 billion years if we look at our universe, over 4.5 billion years if we pick to focus on our planet, over 3.5 billion years if we choose to look at life, or over 200 million years if we zone in on mankind.
Our software is billions of years of neural network and structural development. In the beginning, life’s bodies were simple and the mind or conscience was simply non-existent. Remember, the body came first. This body was a single cell with a flagellum, a tail-like propeller. A simple sugar censor would dictate if that flagellum was to engage to propel the creature from areas of low sugar which the organism would consume to fuel life and reproduction. Over a very long time, a small body with a simple propeller and a sugar censor would bring forth a large organism, with a complex body and sensory system which somehow gave birth to our mind.
Storage drives will be used to increase our memory and possibly make it permanent. Our brains are enormous and extremely capable central processing unit (computer CPUs) equivalent, like none so far. Imagine, having the ability to read an entire encyclopedia and being able to retain it, forever. Forget about pulling out your cell phone and having to access the internet for this information, it will be readily accessible to us from memory.
Language, it’s a very inefficient method of communication. Don’t get me wrong, it was necessary and instrumental in forming our complex social structures which enabled us to advance far beyond our lesser planetary cohabitants. Ants, apes, dolphins, whales, elephants and many other are social creatures but nothing compared to the human condition. We can see far into the past and the future, we are probably the only creature that knows that it will die sometime in the future and this knowledge is a hell of a motivator to make the present better so that we can work on making the future better.
Back to language, it’s very inefficient. Just take a look at how many of my words you’ve already read and you probably have no clue where I’m going with all this and how it will end. Imagine discourse, it’s even worse! You must jockey back and forth, each trying to figure out what the other is trying to say and how it fits the context of the situation and conversation. Remember our memory upgrade? Well, it’s time for a communication upgrade. Imagine being able to simply look into somebody’s eyes and having the information shown to you, a whole encyclopedia passed on from person to person in mere moments. It feels awkward saying that this thing would be a person. Is it a person or something more or maybe less depending on how you look at it? Are we the pinnacle, should we be messing with our minds? After all, it was fine and even beneficial messing with our bodies, but this mind stuff is mostly uncharted territory.
As more of the flesh becomes replaced with metal and plastic and as our intelligence grows, our capacity for creation becomes larger. I do not imagine ever shedding the body for there is no being without it, just like the universe is not a being, it just is.
Metal, immortal, and all knowing… ring a bell? What would we do? There is only so much of the universe you may wish to see. I used to love travel, I used to love visiting a new city and now they’re all the same to me. You have the buildings, the roads, the museums, the airports, the pizza shops, the people, the dogs – see a handful of cities and you’ve seen them all. See a handful of cultures, and you’ve seen them all. See a handful of galaxies and you’ve seen them all.
To conclude, as far as I got in this thought experiment, the only happy ending that I can think of thanks to my body and mind, is one that would involve spreading life throughout the universe. Imagine bragging to your buddy about your planet and how among your creatures there is a very special sort which has potential for greatness. Do you act as a guide or would you be more hands-off with your planetary experiment?
It’s one possibility, what do you think?