Evolution, where we are, and where we have to go
This is a fascinating article on how we will evolve over time… providing Bush doesn’t kill us all. The author first looks at the stages of a species evolving, beginning with where we are working his way through to a species in multiple galaxies drawing their power directly from the sun.
The second part looks at how we could go about exploring other galaxies. This I found particually interesting:
"A Von Neumann probe is a robot designed to reach distant star systems and create factories which will reproduce copies themselves by the thousands. A dead moon rather than a planet makes the ideal destination for Von Neumann probes, since they can easily land and take off from these moons, and also because these moons have no erosion. These probes would live off the land, using naturally occurring deposits of iron, nickel, etc. to create the raw ingredients to build a robot factory. They would create thousands of copies of themselves, which would then scatter and search for other star systems."
[Link]
Z said,
October 5, 2005 at 11:34 pm
Anyone who really liked that article should definately go to the library and hire out Evolution by Stephen Baxter.
The book follows 565 million years of human evolution, starts with shrewlike mammals 65 million years in the past to the ultimate fate of humanity (and its descendants, both biological and non-biological) 500 million years in the future. (I ripped that from Wiki cause i’m lazy).
I thought it was an excellent book. Especially good are his predictions for the future: later humans and post-humans and the world way into future. He predicts future species of animal as well as creatures which could well have existed in the past based on knowledge of past enviroments.
Great book, read it.
That is all.
Z said,
October 5, 2005 at 11:34 pm
it also discusses many of those self replicating robot issues…
Doc said,
October 6, 2005 at 2:54 pm
You forgot to say: ‘That is all.” …….
Z said,
October 6, 2005 at 7:52 pm
that’s all doc.