Immortality in 2045

[bkb0000]

But if I cease you from being, even in an digital form, isn't that still murder. Or would you no longer be defined as human since you lack flesh and bone, but instead just a piece of software.

all depends on how it plays out. i wish i was a better writer, i could articulate my thinkings better.

will we still have children? why?
will there really be a difference between sentience originating in natural man, and CPU-born sentience?
how will we define "life," or will we even bother?
if we do differentiate, who will rule? who will submit?

will individuality still matter to us? why? will we become more of a collectivity, than a race of individuals? we will, like all networked databases, share a LOT of information- why not simply share everything?

[Cagemonkey]

Immortality in 2045 in combination with world over population. Sounds like an oxymoron. Something is going to have to give. Only the elites will be able to take advantage of this technology.

[bkb0000]

Immortality in 2045 in combination with world over population. Sounds like an oxymoron. Something is going to have to give. Only the elites will be able to take advantage of this technology.

it's about this time that, if the current trend were to continue, the world population doubling point would begin to accelerate uncontrollably. since we will not double in world population weekly, daily, hourly, minutely, i don't know what will happen- but as you say, something is going to have to give.

this has happened before, according to scientific history. homo sapien and homo neanderthalensis co-existed in prehistory europe for millennia. perhaps in symbiosis, for a time... but neanderthalkind had limited adaptability, limited mental capacity. so long as there was no competition for resources, they could co-exist in peace. but once each species numbers began to grow, the stronger survived, the weaker became extinct.

[SteyrAUG]

Would it be murder to pull the plug

In one sense yes it would be.

[bkb0000]

an additional note on who will be able to partake in all this, though-

the technology, once implemented, will become so cheap that it'll be free. once computers become smarter than Man, computers will start writing their own programs, engineering their own CPUs. once this happens, the technology curve will skyrocket. every version will produce a better version than itself, and it'll happen in the blink of Man's eye.

likewise, the same will happen with self-replicating machines- the nanobytes themselves, in coordination with the programming and engineering that goes into them. nanobytes will self-replicate better models to replace themselves- and each individual tiny little self-replicating nanobyte will be able to produce a better, smarter, faster, more efficient nanobyte than itself.

the newest latest, greatest upgrades will only be available to the elite, as the elite will always want to remain elite (be they human or machine [if we're differentiating])- but nanotechnology WILL be available to every living man on earth, sooner or later, and no matter how many men there are.

space will not necessarily be a limiter, either. the size of a being will, eventually, not be the least bit important. we can make ourselves smaller, if we want... thereby taking up less space.

but before that happens, we'll likely expand into space. the same technology curve skyrocket that launches us into a new species will also launch us into the heavens. and with the greatest minds networked, i suspect we'll achieve greater-than-light-speed modes of travel within 100 years... but even if we dont, we have the ability to terraform mars, possibly even venus.

-or-

we'll achieve artificial sentience before mankind can catch up, and computers will simply enslave or exterminate us before it becomes an issue.

[Cagemonkey]

it's about this time that, if the current trend were to continue, the world population doubling point would begin to accelerate uncontrollably. since we will not double in world population weekly, daily, hourly, minutely, i don't know what will happen- but as you say, something is going to have to give.

this has happened before, according to scientific history. homo sapien and homo neanderthalensis co-existed in prehistory europe for millennia. perhaps in symbiosis, for a time... but neanderthalkind had limited adaptability, limited mental capacity. so long as there was no competition for resources, they could co-exist in peace. but once each species numbers began to grow, the stronger survived, the weaker became extinct.

Can you say EUGENICS. You make a valid argument, but must take into consideration the difference between the Natural Order of things(Mother nature/evolution) vs a man made Unnatural Order(technology).

[bkb0000]

Can you say EUGENICS. You make a valid argument, but must take into consideration the difference between the Natural Order of things(Mother nature/evolution) vs a man made Unnatural Order(technology).

given as an example of the sociological implications of competing races, with one clearly superior.

i don't think eugenics will play into the singularity, though. there's no need to clean up the human race if we're to transcend the human race. perhaps eugenics will come into play as an alternative to transcendence... those who, for naturalistic or religious reasons, oppose the singularity may opt to clean itself up, in a desperate attempt to compete. THAT actually seems fairly plausible, as what's left of the human race will likely be pretty ****in degenerate by that point. a hundred and fifty years of preserving and multiplying bad chromosomes- ack.

speculation can take this anywhere.

[SteyrAUG]

we'll achieve artificial sentience before mankind can catch up, and computers will simply enslave or exterminate us before it becomes an issue.

Or simply ignore us completely as we might have extremely limited interaction with each other. We might not be relevant enough to warrant destruction or even much notice.

[skyugo]

Immortality in 2045 in combination with world over population. Sounds like an oxymoron. Something is going to have to give. Only the elites will be able to take advantage of this technology.

If we're no longer constrained by human lifespans and biological needs, spreading into space will be a serious option. Nobody wants to go work on mars now, it's a 3 year round trip. Going to a nearby star would take a lifetime.
If you can live hundreds of years or thousands, these things become reasonable.

also a computer intelligence powerful enough to bring us immortality could probably also bring us solutions to world hunger, overpopulation and any other issues.

alternately it'll go all skynet on us and blow everyone up.

[The_War_Wagon]

In 2045, I'll be 78... assuming I'm still around, and knowing my family's average lifespan, that's a pretty ASTOUNDING assumption for us.

I rather doubt anyone's gonna wanna back up an old confessional Lutheran Pastor by then, and besides which, I'm with Skyugo on this one. It'll go Skynet on us, before it makes copies of us.