102,004 A.D. - where will we be 100,000 years from now?

Byron · 2004-03-27 10:41:24

Since there have been a number of new polls created lately, I'd thought I'd toss one in of my own for fun

As for what I think of where we might be a 100,000 years from now, I'm going to pick choice number 3, as I don't know if we'll ever be able to develop FTL technology, which would be essential for spreading out into the galaxy and beyond in my opinion. But you never know, right?

Additional thoughts, anyone?

B

~Eternal~ · 2004-03-27 11:00:11

I feel that we unwilling as a species with curiousity is destined for Intergalactic power.

Faster Than Light ships will be as common as airplanes in a mere matter of decades.
We could very well colonize the Galaxy using Space Normal drives,
[http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763/i … e=future05]http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763/i … e=future05
I however believe that these ships could get up to 75 % percent the speed of light and we could be galactic in a matter of 150,000 years.

Of course we would need FTL communications but we could use Tachyon powered radio messages for this, couldn't we?

Gennaro · 2004-03-27 11:19:17

I voted number 4, but we will probably not colonize the entire galaxy, far from it, since for nothing else we'll crash into a myriad of other civilizations.

Humans will probably still be recognizable. What technology and civilization has been doing to the species of Homo Sapiens is not the least putting natural selection out of play. The Darwinist stage of blind natural fiddling is being overcome as we speak. With biotech engineering this process will only accelerate.

On the other hand one might expect significant racial differences between humans from different worlds as harnessed by the local environment. A little like the varying characteristics between different lineages of dogs.

I feel FTL is one of the big unknowns. Warp Drives and such rely heavily on relativity physics. But who can say Einstein got it absolutely right?
If he's wrong antimatter powered photon rockets could concievably reach a final velocity of lightspeed using what we principally already know.
My estimate for antimatter reaction drives to become the rage is something like between 200 to 500 years, later rather than sooner.

Palomar · 2004-03-27 13:41:28

*I voted #3.

Of course I'm -hoping- 100,000 from now will have exceeded my wildest imagination and we're pushing out far beyond the Solar System and into the galaxy...

I couldn't help, however, to think of all the entertainment venues out there geared for us being back into a stone-age type situation in the future (be it natural catastrophe related, i.e. asteroid collision, or post-nuclear war). :-\ Of course, I sincerely hope that "forecast" is completely wrong and that it'll never become a "self-fulfilling prophecy." I don't want to get the thread off-track, though, so will stop here.

--Cindy

Cobra Commander · 2004-03-27 14:34:03

The last one, It's a safe bet. Whether we continue to advance at our current rate, expanding through the galaxy and changing through chance or design in response, or if we totally blow it and destroy ourselves... I'm still right! Cool how those vague predictions work out, isn't it?

Rxke · 2004-03-28 05:23:54

I couldn't help, however, to think of all the entertainment venues out there geared for us being back into a stone-age type situation in the future

Cindy, could you re-phrase that, please? I do not understand what this sentence means...
For me it sounds like you say that in the future there will be 'stone-age theme parcs' made for us, so we can see what a catastrophe would look like? But I don't get it...

Rxke · 2004-03-28 05:26:24

30 seconds later, Rxke slaps his forehead *hard*

Ummm... Ok, I *do* get it...

Took me a while, though, heh.

Mad Grad Student · 2004-03-28 22:50:13

I voted #4, 100,000 years is a LOOOOOOONG time, especially considering the rate at which humans develop new technology. 100,000 years ago the human population was maybe a million, all in Africa. 10,000 years ago the big new thing was agriculture in Mesipotamia, with the human population at about 70 million. 1,000 years ago we had the pyramids, the acropolis, and the gardens of Babylon, though we were in the middle of a hangover following the collapse of the Roman empire, population 300 million. 100 years ago the human population was about a billion (Correct?), we had flight, Ford, knew what the solar system was like and were debating about canals on Mars. 10 years ago the population was 4 billion, I was born by now ( ), humans had gone to the Moon and landed robots on three different solar system bodies. See how quickly things change? A hundred years ago the biggest killers were smallpox, polio, and other diseases that are practically eradicated, imagine where we'll be a hundred years from now!

I highly doubt that humanity will go extinct in the next 100,000 years, we're just to successful a species. The only thing harder to kill off on a whole than us (Multicellular-wise) would probably be cockroaches, sorry gians and doomsdayers, we're not going anywhere for a while. In my opinion, our decendants will be around for a long, long time. But they're just deceded from us, keeping the lineage alive.

Adrian · 2004-03-29 06:17:55

I'm with Cobra - I believe that the technological singularity is on its way in the near future, whether that be in the next few decades or centuries (certainly no later than that) and when that occurs, all bets are off. The current pace of scientific and technological development shows no signs at all of letting up and things are only going to get faster and faster. Problems like nanotech and AI are hard - maybe the hardest we've ever encountered - but they're not insoluble and when they're cracked, I hesitate to make any predictions about the future. However, I do think talk of actual physical humans still being around in 100k years and zipping between stars in spacecraft is unlikely. I think by that time, we will have lost interest in such things and to a human observer from today, we will have essentially disappeared or at least become totally unrecognisable.

Mark Friedenbach · 2004-03-29 06:30:56

I voted #3 because FLT does not exist and will never exist (although you wouldn't need it to colonize the galaxy).

But like Grad Student says, 100k years is a looong time. I would say 1,000 to 2,000 years is all it'll take to fully colonize the solar system. Isn't that what Marshall Savage predicted?

TJohn · 2004-03-29 07:36:37

I voted for number 3. If our past had developed like the one in Clarke's 3001 novel, we probably would reach option 4 with no problems.

clark · 2004-03-29 09:34:10

#2

After the coming Ice Age, mankind will be digging out of the last thaw, rebuilding and rediscovering most of the lost technology, chasing after fabled sunken cities like Atlanta and Boise, and will be contemplating landing a man on the moon becuase they think they see some flag.

But most conspiracy opponents still say man never landed on the Moon. :laugh:

Bill White · 2004-03-29 09:48:32

I'm with Cobra - I believe that the technological singularity is on its way in the near future, whether that be in the next few decades or centuries (certainly no later than that) and when that occurs, all bets are off. The current pace of scientific and technological development shows no signs at all of letting up and things are only going to get faster and faster. Problems like nanotech and AI are hard - maybe the hardest we've ever encountered - but they're not insoluble and when they're cracked, I hesitate to make any predictions about the future. However, I do think talk of actual physical humans still being around in 100k years and zipping between stars in spacecraft is unlikely. I think by that time, we will have lost interest in such things and to a human observer from today, we will have essentially disappeared or at least become totally unrecognisable.

I agree with this as well. AI & nano-tech are like "event horizons" - - damn near impossible to see through. Yet even post-humans will still be our children.

Bill White · 2004-03-29 09:52:24

But like Grad Student says, 100k years is a looong time. I would say 1,000 to 2,000 years is all it'll take to fully colonize the solar system. Isn't that what Marshall Savage predicted?

Remember chaos theory? Whichever "meme carrier" gets into space "first-est with the most-est" to quote Confederate general JEB Stuart will dominate the minds of those people who do colonize the solar system.

Like Richard Dawkins teaches, genes aren't the only tiny replicators who exhibit traits of selfishness.

John Creighton · 2004-03-29 09:59:11

There is some interesting theory on warp drives. Who knows what the future will hold.

Earthfirst · 2004-03-29 13:12:53

I think we will go back to the stone age and hit each other with clubs over women, wait thats what we do now of days.

PurduesUSAFguy · 2004-06-28 08:14:02

I think we may well cease to exist as one species in as little as 100 or 200 years. by the end of the 2000s things like symbiotic nano-repair systems could be as common as flu shots and end disease and aging as we know it in the western world, but at the same time I'm guessing that huge swaths of the population of Africa, the middle Eaast and Asia will be ravaged by AIDs and other diseases preventable treatable diseases.

Alt2War · 2004-06-28 15:26:26

We will make great pets to our new Robot Overlords.

TheMadCap · 2004-06-28 16:24:05

I think it will likely be either #2 or even #5. In all my life's experience, nothing that I have seen gives me any hope that humans have what it takes to survive their animalistic tendancies. I mean, seriously people, we can't get along with each other, because one person's "god" is called something other than someone elses. Not that it is our fault really, if not for the genetic instinct to outcompete and fight with each other, we may have never evolved to this point anyways. The number one question in the universe which I wish to know is whether or not this is the same for all sentient beings, or if the endpoint of evolution is really extinction. Are we too powerful for our own good, ready to erase ourselves for such petty reasons as religion?

Unfortunatly, I have to be the pessimistic one here, and say that we will either wipe ourselves completely out, or a plague wipes out 99.9% of the population, and we have to start over.

DERF · 2004-06-28 18:44:38

#5

I seriously doubt intelligent life originating from Earth, specifically us, will ever end. I am just saying that in 100,00 years it will barely resemble us. It's too bad we couldn't split up those option. Let's take laser-eye surgery, hearing aids and even cosmetic surgery. That is just what we are clumsily doing now. In at most a 100 years gene therapy will be prevalent everywhere. In a bit more it might even be MANDATORY to have your children's genes altered at birth so they can catch up with everyone else/not develop an expensive terminal disease. I mean it is IRRESPONSIBLE once we have significant genetic knowledge to have children that will definitively develop Hungtington's disease or progeria or Alzheimer's. Once those diseases are eliminated (in only a thousand years at ABSOLUTE MOST) where can we go from there? I could see significant genetic redesigning. And if we go on to other planets, who says that our colonists won't be genetically developed to survive or adapt to the planet?

It makes me excited.

So the human species will definitely not exist as it does today in 100,000 years.

Trebuchet · 2004-06-28 23:23:36

I picked #5. 100,000 years ago we just emerged in the world with sharpened rocks, in another 100,000 years there's likely to be a whole mess of different human-derived species fighting each other. Self-destruction is an appealing but implausible event - the broom would never sweep clean enough, especially over the length of time we're talking about.

oscar · 2004-08-03 19:52:39

It's been found nanotechnology buried in Ice Age strata in Russia and it seems in the past many cycles have been repeated and new humanities appear and dissapear erasing history due to geological changes; even Carl Sagan was worried about human footprints side by side in dinosaurs strata that wrote about it in his books Dragons of Eden and Contact but I don't pretend to demonstrate anything of the past in this thread which is about the future. I believe our humanity will vanish by multiplied catastrophes and the survivors will start from zero. It's not difficult to imagine Sun electromagnetic changes could affect our dependence on satelites or the very electricity of the planet, or thermonuclear accident or twisted poles, or the falling of an asteroid, etc.
Since the knowledge will always survive in the most skilled and our dependence on machines will be limited, tv, computers, radios, CD, DVD will be for future generations as something useless and the primitive use will be as forgotten as Djed pillars and fluorescent lapms in Dendera and other places in Egypt, as the nickel & copper alloys in Tiahuanaco and Machu Picchu requiring temperature of 1930 degrees that we only achieved in 1930...the purpose of our modern technology will be erased from meory of men except for oral legends remembered by few chosen ones. In the future, someone will recognize the square metalic box was probably connected to electricity on Earth and would imagine the word "Toshiba" was mythological entity or the name of a place though the maps will never determine it. A future linguist will say the word looks like Japanese sound though the letters are written in English...a forgotten language that evolved into Spanglish-Chinese...the worldwide language of mankind that dissapeared when mingled with Cyrillic Russian language.
In the past the Earth was like an egg and it has been expanding since. Pangea existed because of that and wouldn't fit in our planet that right now is getting flatter in the poles and wider in the Equator belly. The Earth of the future would increase the size even more and alter rotation and translation around the Sun. But an accident with planet Mars will eventually destroy that planet and our "day" will be reduced to third part (like an echo of Apocalipsis), therefore 24 hours - 8 hours would mean the day in the future will last only 16 hours...6 hours of light and 6 hours of night and the scientists in the future will especulate that in Joshua's time there was a huge asteroid that broke apart in many pieces that affected the rotation of the axis of the planet...that episode determined in Joshua's land was seen as a whole day of light while in the other side of the world the people saw it like a night that last almost 24 hours...so again...they will speculate in our time we are living a day of 24 hours and the computers will suggest to astro-archeology there was a catastrophe in Mars that reduced day and affected the years of our planet. New human life would have to adapt to these new conditions as cockroaches and dinosaurs of the past were GIANTS not because an isolated and retarded mutation but because reasons paleonthologist don't know but geologist suspect. Gravity and atmosphere, oxygen, density was different in the past. So in the future life span, size of creatures will be completely different from now and the remains of things that don't fit in their orthodox solution will be hidden in the New Smithsonian Institute chambers (that will have another name). By that time, the New Empires would be civilizations that not even exist in our times. New race which mingle all ethnic we see today would determine new characteristics: Chinese-negro, Australian with blue eyes, natural red head Chinese, blond Latinos, green Hindu-American and they will try to figure out what's the meaning of "race"....

smurf975 · 2004-08-06 14:14:35

I'm a person that thinks that Humans like dino's will rule the Earth for many millions of years. There will be tragedies and a lot of deaths but the human’s race will rebound. Now with writing going back to the Stone Age is hardly imaginable for me. As all knowledge is written down. Maybe go back to WWI level of technologies but not further then that.

As a community just needs one bible/thora/koran and someone that can read it and write in the printed languange and you can learn a lot of the ideas / technologies described in those holy books.

Perhaps like the Dino's the humans will go extinct but the dino's left us one thing: The birds. So there will always be humans as there are still (related) life forms on Earth from its earliest days.

Only way for humans to go extinct is to blow up this planet.

---

About humans evolving into maybe something like Home Superior, that’s a big guess. I think by colonizing space (at least this solar system) that could happen faster, as you will get diversitation. But maybe humans are like crocodiles, insects and sharks. They will not change much even over the course of a million years. At this point of time its not needed for the Human to evolve, as it has no real natural predators, so there is no driving force. The weak and the strong humans are as strong when confronted with a wild animal (just need a gun). I think nature doesn’t change that that works.

Yes you have humans that are immune to certain diseases and will live but I don't think immunity systems drive evolutions of species.

prometheusunbound · 2004-08-07 15:11:24

I bet colonization of the solar system, from a technical standpoint, could happen in 20-30 years. From a poltical standpoint, it could happen in 50 years. Not all the people need be from earth; the traditional way of population increase is just as valid in space as it is on terra firma, and probably somewhat more fun. :;):

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-07-30 09:17:05

Chinese fossil sheds light on mysterious Neanderthal kin
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13063305

and in our fictional worlds

The 10 most underrated dystopian sci-fi movies of all time
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/10-most-un … fi-movies/

10 Sci-Fi Movies Audiences Walked Out Of
https://whatculture.com/film/10-sci-fi- … -of?page=2

Glaciered, Sci-Fi Action Game Set 65 Million Years in the Future, Officially Announced with Steam Page
https://www.player.one/glaciered-sci-fi … lly-149268

The original Poll on this thread is long gone

It would be difficult for me to dream of predicting 100 years but let's look back over 50 years, back 100s of years and 1,000s of years and maybe comment on our fantasy and scifi books and shows

In war we once fired arrows used swords, then came cannon fire and now can wipe out a city in an instant

When it comes to sciences most of it led by 'The West' although there have been other great ancient powers in history, the Egyptians, Greeks, Rome, Babylon and Mesopotamia, the Chinese and the Hindu Indus Valley civilization cultures.

Over 100 years ago a Revolution in Industry, Lamps, Electricity, Cars, Bridges, Inventions of Curiosity and new designs for Buildings
1870s and 1900s

Renaissance is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, the Age of Ships and Exploration and Discovery, Empires of Europe and Ships began to sail across the globe in the late 1400’s and lasted through the 1700’s.

Go back 100,000 years and we start acting and looking less human, maybe more Homo erectus or more like a Caveman monkey Australopithecus and Paranthropus, a guy and a girl started to loose their hair and furs, they made a sharp rock sharper for cutting, they used Bone tools, they began to light fires, there could have been a religion ritual element to thing they did, perhaps had instrument and song, maybe a priest or preacher who knew of plants and communicated with symbols, we still find new bones and look at genes, some were part Denisovan or were a mixed breed with some local Neanderthal population, Neanderthals and Denisovans are some of the nearest ancestors to modern humans and the ancient Stone Age 'human' some painted on rock or made drawing on the walls.

Our future fictional timelines?

Things that happened in movies but didn't in the real world, Marty McFly and his friend "Doc" Brown travel from 1985 to 2015 where they meet flying cars.
Demolition Man or Escape From NewYork
Mad Max Road Warrior takes place about the late 1980s.

Things that have yet to happen
Blade Runner 2049 or the Blade Runner Universe

The Expanse book and tv series Leviathan Wakes is a space opera I remember it is in the not too distant future, Judge Dredd is law enforcement also at the same time an executioner and judicial officer in the dystopian near-future post Apocalypse city, I think 2099 was mentioned in one of those movies or comicbook reprints.

Somewhere close to this time Star Trek, Earth is devastated by World War III then in year 2063, Zefram Cochrane builds a historic warp drive and makes contact with Dr Spock's people the alien Vulcans.

Late 2080, 2090?
The Hunger Games, Dredd, Total Recall, Interstellar

2100s and 2200s
Post Hunger Games, Interstellar conclusion, Starship Troopers, the Matrix, Aliens horror scifi franchise

Babylon 5 story between the years 2200-2300 ish

Revelation Space book universe set between 2427 and 2727

2400s, 2500s, 2600s, 2700s
Waterworld, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Japan's Alita Battle Angel, 'Idiocracy' dark comedy, Deadspace game, Wing Commander and Halo video games.

Late year 2,900 and Early Late 3,000 to 4,000
Barbarella, Arena, the Japanes Astroboy cartoon, Planet of the Apes

49th century 4800 ? the Commissioning of the Starship Andromeda, a StarTrek Flash Gordon style show and Dylan Hunt's Commonwealth ship,

Year 10,000 ish
Dune and Mortal Engines

20,001 Arthur C Clark books the lifeforms on the moon Europa develop a fairly sophisticated culture and religion

Warhammer 40,000 imperialism and horror and space demons and Galactic spanning 'Emperors' and War around the turn of the 42nd millennium 39,000 years in the future.

I believe some BBC Doctor Who episodes happen between 50,000 and 150,000
the timeline mentioned above in the first post of this thread

Morlocks in H G Wells time machine books dwell underground in the English countryside of AD 802,701

1,000,000 Babylon-5 Solar System is destroyed as the Human race leaves its cradle for the last time
and some time after this a British scifi comedy show Red Dwarf takes place

I believe in the far far future some books cover future past, where technology exists but might seem like magic, mutant creatures run around like creatures from Folklore, the planet has changed and people have gone back to old MadMax or Sword, Medieval Battle Army and Sorcery ways, some of these books inspired an entire Dying Earth subgenre in other books, cartoons or video games.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-07-30 09:20:03)

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