[Strummer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'I')f we do fall back and go extinct, then there may be time for another species to advance

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Synapsid', 'S')ix,

The reason I asked the question is that I know of no evidence for a large impact in connection with the Permo-Triassic extinction. There was a claim a decade or two ago from a worker at UCSB but no one could duplicate the work, or even the sampling.

[SeaGypsy]

Feel free to ignore my last post, Virus.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'F')eel free to ignore my last post, Virus.

[Strummer]

The real external threats to humanity are asteroids and a supervolcano explosion. The first one can be solved by building a warning/elimination system. The second one by building underground shelters, storage facilites and "bio-archives".

But there's the problem... underground shelters are mundane, boring, and definitely not sexy enough to build a modern religion for retards around, unlike space travel.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Strummer', 'T')hat will not be possible, ever on this planet again. They would need the easy access to specific resources, and especially easy energy to make the crucial steps towards technology, and they won't have that. Easy to get and extremely rich metal ores, fossil fuels and all the rest. We used it all up, and that's why there won't be another technological civilization on Earth ever again if we screw it up.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Strummer', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'I')f we do fall back and go extinct, then there may be time for another species to advance

[SeaGypsy]

6, despite appearances, I work 7 days a week, 20 to 30 days straight. I don't have time to fully expand on your status as a virus minded human being who believes in an utter fantasy as the solution to the situation we are actually in.

[Newfie]

Six,

I can see you quoted my post, now perhaps go back and try to comprehend it.

From the volume of you writting it's pretty clear you don't give much time to thing about what others say.

There is no conversation, it's more like turning on a spigot.

BTW, it was Murray Gell-Mann

"Earth is rotting, life is the waste."
Quoted in Deep Survival by Larence Gonzalez.

[Sixstrings]

It's really odd to me how contentious this is, to you guys.

I do not understand it, not one bit, how anyone can be hostile to space development.

[Quinny]

Because it's a waste of precious resources that are needed to help normal people.
Because we are destroying our environment to produce a barren techtopia that thinks it can trump nature.
Because it's a fantasy that most of the world don't give a hoot about.
Because research into rocket technology has been used to improve the killing capacity of weapons whilst de-personalising war.
could carry on and on really...............

[SeaGypsy]

I was trying to think of a metaphor last night. All I could think of is:

A bunch of rich brats gate crash a party in the ghetto. They proceed to destroy the place, having fun. When the hosts ask them to help clean up, the answer is 'screw you lot, we live in penthouses & own islands you have never heard of, that's where we are off to, clean up your own mess!'

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'I')t's really odd to me how contentious this is, to you guys.

I do not understand it, not one bit, how anyone can be hostile to space development.

[SeaGypsy]

Some people have no conscious sense of ethics. How can it be not of supreme importance to have thoroughly evolved as a species, not only capable of space exploration, but verifiably audited worth as a species to contemplate extending our progeny beyond the limits of this solar system? It cannot be right to contemplate extending ourselves when we are in fact a verified pathogen on the planet which gave birth to us.

Taking the above as a moral & ethical absolute, I am left with the schoolboy version of space development only. We get to burn around making cool selfies at a million bucks a pop, utterly stuck with the real solar system limitation imposed on us, not giving a flying flip about the mess under our feet, or 35 light minutes below, to which we have no choice but to return.

Hawkings may be a hero to some, but to me his ethics reek worse than his presentation.

[dinopello]

I think I can settle this space development issue. And, that is just a matter of sequencing. So, once the human species has figured out a way to repair the damage we've made to the earth and enact a lifestyle that allows us all to live in harmony with the rest of the natural world on earth and is at peace with each other on THIS planet THEN we head out to space and the rest of the universe to spread our enlightened thoughts. Sound good ?

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'I') think I can settle this space development issue. And, that is just a matter of sequencing. So, once the human species has figured out a way to repair the damage we've made to the earth and enact a lifestyle that allows us all to live in harmony with the rest of the natural world on earth and is at peace with each other on THIS planet THEN we head out to space and the rest of the universe to spread our enlightened thoughts. Sound good ?

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'I') think I can settle this space development issue. And, that is just a matter of sequencing. So, once the human species has figured out a way to repair the damage we've made to the earth and enact a lifestyle that allows us all to live in harmony with the rest of the natural world on earth and is at peace with each other on THIS planet THEN we head out to space and the rest of the universe to spread our enlightened thoughts. Sound good ?

[wildbourgman]

http://www.vice.com/read/randal-koene-b ... oading-438

I think this article really connects to this discussion. I think the part a copied below is really telling. Scientist think that downloading your brain to a internet cloud is possible, but having your spirit basically upload to heaven is nonsense. As long as they are in power it's all possible, but a higher power with infinite wisdom couldn't have already beat them to the punch. I think the bold new concept in the below paragraph is not a new concept at all it's what religious people have been saying is possible for thousands of years. It's the mechanics thats different.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat's that?
A SIM is not merely an artificial intelligence, but a re-instantiation of a specific human mind—a human mind downloaded to a computer. Neuroscientists are 99.9% percent convinced that the brain is a mechanism. It is something that computes, something that carries out functions. If you can figure out how it works, you can build a replacement for it. The idea that you can take a small piece of the brain and build a replica for it is very mainstream and well understood. Why not do that with the whole brain? And then why not upload that to a computer so that we can process more data and store it better, the way a computer does, organizing thoughts into folders that we can access whenever we choose?
So, in the future, if we're able to download our brains, will brainless bodies be genetically grown for us? Or will we inhabit a more computer-like environment; a robot, say, or an android?
It would be interesting to inhabit a more virtual world. Or perhaps bodies that aren't built to survive in this environment, but somewhere else, like space. Living on Earth, where we need to breath oxygen, will no longer be necessary. We might have an existence in an environment more like the Cloud.It's not just a matter of the space we inhabit, but that the biological reasons for mortality vanish. So you could have art projects or science projects that would normally outstrip the lifespan of a normal person

[SeaGypsy]

The Singularity doesn't carry much weight around this neck of the woods WBM.
It's last proponent here was also nuts about LENR which went where we all thought it would. The ideas may not be too technically grandiose but it's the issue of transference. What we each think of as ourself, is mechanically attached to the brain inside what we call our skull. Not what we see in a mirror, in an identical twin, our lover or a child, let alone an identikit robot self. When you figure out how to non temporarily transfer your conscious self away from the functionality of your brain, let us all know which yoga school you were at.

[Newfie]

I'm pretty sure the "soul" doesn't even exist in the sense that is a discernible thing. If it exists it is a collection, an amalgam, of feelings such as love, fidelity, loyalty, anger, fear, etc.