What will our post-human future be like?

[phk]

What do you think?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The Earth would probably float around as a rock inhabited by animals for several billion more years, at least until the Sun dies out. After that the universe will continue until it ends via entropy with the stars all dying out. That one won't be for trillions of years, though.

[opebo]

Probably vampires; slight possibility of some kind of roach-human hybrid.

[King]

The Sun will have exploded and there will be no Earth.

[Redalgo]

I suppose it would depend on what one means by "post-human."

[Dgov]

I suppose it would depend on what one means by "post-human."

Do you mean when the last organism descended from homo sapiens dies, leaves earth, or becomes an organic battery for our robotic overlords?

Or perhaps when we figure out a way to transform our population into pure energy and achieve transcendence?

[minionofmidas]

I don't think any post-human future of the earth can be called "our" future.

[John Dibble]

I suppose it would depend on what one means by "post-human."

Do you mean when the last organism descended from homo sapiens dies, leaves earth, or becomes an organic battery for our robotic overlords?

Or perhaps when we figure out a way to transform our population into pure energy and achieve transcendence?

In regards to the latter it doesn't have to be something to that degree to be considered "post-human". It could simply involve mass use of genetic engineering or cybernetics or something like that. It could even be something as simple as us evolving to be different enough from what we are now that our descendants would not be considered human - they could be considered "more than" or "less than" human depending on how it goes.

[afleitch]

We are still the same bag of flesh with too many teeth that we've been for thousands of years. I highly doubt we will evolve any more. But there will be a time when we are no more and the natural geological forces of the earth destroy any trace that we were ever here. If there's nothing intelligent that follows us they won't exactly go looking for our fossil remains.

As for transcendentalist bullsh-t it deserves to be filed under 'Sci-Fi, all books 2 for 1'

[Associate Justice PiT]

I suppose it would depend on what one means by "post-human."

Do you mean when the last organism descended from homo sapiens dies, leaves earth, or becomes an organic battery for our robotic overlords?

Or perhaps when we figure out a way to transform our population into pure energy and achieve transcendence?

In regards to the latter it doesn't have to be something to that degree to be considered "post-human". It could simply involve mass use of genetic engineering or cybernetics or something like that. It could even be something as simple as us evolving to be different enough from what we are now that our descendants would not be considered human - they could be considered "more than" or "less than" human depending on how it goes.

     Evolution is gradual enough, though, that even if we were to evolve into flying spaghetti monsters, the popular notion of what is human will have shifted to still define ourselves as human. Scientists may define us as a different genus after the fact, but the species will just be known as "modern humans", as opposed to the "early humans" of homo sapiens.

[Redalgo]

I suppose it would depend on what one means by "post-human."

Do you mean when the last organism descended from homo sapiens dies, leaves earth, or becomes an organic battery for our robotic overlords?

Or perhaps when we figure out a way to transform our population into pure energy and achieve transcendence?

It is an ambiguous subject. I could read into it as:

1. The future just on the Earth after homo sapiens goes extinct in the however-distant future.
2. The future of our corner of space (e.g. colonized worlds) after homo sapiens goes extinct.
3. The future just on the Earth after homo sapiens, for whatever reason, opts to abandon it.
4. The future in which homo sapiens is phased out by substantively different descendants.
5. The future in which all descendants of homo sapiens have gone extinct, wherever they are.
6. The future where humanity no longer dominates whatever territories it happens to occupy.
7. The future for individuals after death if folks have spirits that are not intrinsically "human."
8. The future in which folks may no longer use the notion of "human" to describe their selves.

If I spent enough time thinking about it another few  more might come to mind. My point is, if we are going to speculate about the future it would be good to know what part of it we are speculating about. The number of factors to consider are vast. It does not help if people try to answer the question using completely different interpretations of what is being asked in the first place. Not that I mind of course - it is just that I felt it would be prudent to first determine from phknrocket1k for the sake of clarity what the thread is about. I likely could have phrased my first post in a way more conducive to actually receiving an answer though. xD

[Tender Branson]

Well, I think that a huge asteroid sometime in the future wipes out the cancer that is humanity and then the earth recovers ...

I´ve once thought about that possibility: What if an asteroid wipes out humanity and the only people remaining are the 6 crewmembers in the International Space Station.

Would it be possible to re-populate the planet with these 6 individuals ?

I guess not, because

A) they cannot go down to Earth anymore

B) there are 5 men and 1 woman who is 50 years old on the ISS

C) the earth would probably look very uninhabitable and every person that manages to land would probably die within a few hours

D) then are the moral problems: 5 men, 1 woman -> children -> ?

[John Dibble]

We are still the same bag of flesh with too many teeth that we've been for thousands of years. I highly doubt we will evolve any more.

Actually I think it's almost definite that we will continue to evolve. Our genes still mutate just like those of any other species on this planet, and that's how new or enhanced traits come about. However, barring some kind of apocalyptic event that causes civilization to collapse I would say that our evolution won't be the same as for most animals in the wild as we have no significant predation and have plentiful food and access to advanced medical technology, all of which significantly reduces the effects of certain selective pressures on our populations. Gene proliferation would therefore be greatly affected, as genes that would normally be favored in a more "natural" environment would not benefit individuals as greatly as they otherwise would. I imagine the ones that would proliferate fastest would be ones related to sexual attraction, because finding a mate and having children is the one pressure that we're not likely to ever get rid of.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, I think that a huge asteroid sometime in the future wipes out the cancer that is humanity and then the earth recovers ...

I´ve once thought about that possibility: What if an asteroid wipes out humanity and the only people remaining are the 6 crewmembers in the International Space Station.

Would it be possible to re-populate the planet with these 6 individuals ?

I guess not, because

A) they cannot go down to Earth anymore

B) there are 5 men and 1 woman who is 50 years old on the ISS

C) the earth would probably look very uninhabitable and every person that manages to land would probably die within a few hours

D) then are the moral problems: 5 men, 1 woman -> children -> ?

The debris that would be thrown up by any asteroid strike sudden enough to prevent other contingencies from being undertaken and sufficient to extinguish all human life would destroy the ISS which is in a fairly low orbit.

In such an apocalypse, likely the last human survivors would be those who are aboard submerged submarines.

[Lief 🗽]

Robot civilization on land, underwater dolphin cities under the sea, and hideous mole men tribes below the surface.

[King]

Robot civilization on land, underwater dolphin cities under the sea, and hideous mole men tribes below the surface.

And universal healthcare.