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[BocoDragon]

In millions of years?

So? There's a time limit on our stay here. How could humans die out? If they never leave the place where every human has ever existed. I think that's pretty significant. Sure we could do a lot of things in millions of years (we'll evolve hella for one), but alternatively perhaps there is simply no way to find another biosphere that would support us. It's a HUGE "what if" at this point, while the sun blowing up and life on earth coming to an end is an inevitability.

 

[speculawyer]

According to Stephen Hawking, human expansion on a galactic scale is necessary to ensure the long-term survival of our species. I have personally held this belief for quite some time and it's something I like to contemplate from time to time. Do you really think it will happen? Some of the significant obstacles in our way:

I think all those obstacles are surmountable given a few more hundred years of science & engineering.

I think the bigger obstacle is that humans are largely stupid short-sighted superstitious tribalistic apes. We are more likely to waste time & resources on pointless wars over who has the better prophet & God. Or perhaps we'll just keep growing the population until we run low on oil & natural gas such that we start having massive famines.

 

[Karma Kramer]

You can't really disprove it, but that doesn't mean it is true either.

Kind of Off-Topic but did we actually evolve with the ability to reason?

I find it unlikely that if we were part alien we would be so similar to apes, but not have many attributes that were similar to whatever this alien was.

 

[Kodiak]

humans will never stop spreading until we wipe ourselves out completely, so if we successfully make it off earth before that happens we'll probably end up ruining the whole universe.

 

[Karma Kramer]

So? There's a time limit on our stay here. How could humans die out? If they never leave the place where every human has ever existed. I think that's pretty significant. Sure we could do a lot of things in millions of years (we'll evolve hella for one), but alternatively perhaps there is simply no way to find another biosphere that would support us. It's a HUGE "what if" at this point, while the sun blowing up and life on earth coming to an end is an inevitability.

In millions of years we will definitely be living on other planets in the galaxy.

 

[BocoDragon]

In millions of years we will definitely be living on other planets in the galaxy.

Then why have this thread if it's so obvious?

 

[nestea]

In millions of years we will definitely be living on other planets in the galaxy.

The human race has really only existed for thousands of years. I think by then we will have evolved into something better.

 

[Karma Kramer]

Then why have this thread if it's so obvious?

Cause the only reason we won't be colonizing the galaxy is if we die out before that happens.

The human race has really only existed for thousands of years. I think by then we will have evolved into something better.

Well yeah... very true.

 

[plovie]

My dad actually believes that humans are the byproduct of aliens that came to earth and had their way with some apes.

And how did he come up with this novel theory? :lol

 

[speculawyer]

You've seen the movie Sunshine?

Or one has had even a basic education in astronomy.

 

[kozmo7]

Seriously... this place really depresses me sometimes.

Well, it is awfully unrealistic. The more our technology advances the more destructive our weapons get. I could see colonizing planets nearby but I honestly can't imagine giant star fleets and distant planets populated by humans.

Maybe I am a glass half full kind of guy but quite honestly we'd figure out a way to exterminate our race before we ever find out how to manipulate wormholes properly for travel.

Can't say I blame em. Until you've walked a mile in another man's shoes, you'll never know what it means to fuck an ape.

Offtopic: If a man did it with an ape, would it create ape/human hybrids?

 

[Phoenix]

We won't have any choice within a 1000 years BUT to colonize the galaxy. At our current rate of expansion we will absolutely outgrow the earth and its resources. So we'll either have something kill humanity off or we will have to grow outwards. That NEED for growth will resolve any possibility that the technology won't be available. We don't go to the moon or mars or anywhere else because there is no pressing need on humanity to do so.

 

[Kapsama]

I think all those obstacles are surmountable given a few more hundred years of science & engineering.

I think the bigger obstacle is that humans are largely stupid short-sighted superstitious tribalistic apes. We are more likely to waste time & resources on pointless wars over who has the better prophet & God. Or perhaps we'll just keep growing the population until we run low on oil & natural gas such that we start having massive famines.

Like war has ever been about Gods and prophets.

So? There's a time limit on our stay here. How could humans die out? If they never leave the place where every human has ever existed. I think that's pretty significant. Sure we could do a lot of things in millions of years (we'll evolve hella for one), but alternatively perhaps there is simply no way to find another biosphere that would support us. It's a HUGE "what if" at this point, while the sun blowing up and life on earth coming to an end is an inevitability.

Well I tend to think that among tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way alone, there'd be a suitable replacement for Earth.

 

[nestea]

Offtopic: If a man did it with an ape, would it create ape/human hybrids?

I asked my science teacher this in high school, the answer is no. Same goes for dogs.

 

[plovie]

I asked my science teacher this in high school, the answer is no. Same goes for dogs.

*phew*

 

[Foil]

We just need to get up to Mars and find those relays. Once we do that, we're set.

Unless 2012 kills us all first.

 

[Karma Kramer]

Well, it is awfully unrealistic. The more our technology advances the more destructive our weapons get. I could see colonizing planets nearby but I honestly can't imagine giant star fleets and distant planets populated by humans.

Maybe I am a glass half full kind of guy but quite honestly we'd figure out a way to exterminate our race before we ever find out how to manipulate wormholes properly for travel.

Why would we ever need to design a weapon more powerful then the atomic bomb? More funding is going into weapons that are extremely accurate and fatal... but with small blasts radiuses.

I see our funding and resources in the future spent more on space then in killing each other.

 

[Kosma]

Yes.

Either that or we all die.

 

[Zeed]

It shouldn't shock me that liberal GAF is so pessimistic and small-minded. You don't just drink from the cup of defeatism, you bathe and revel in it.

And it shouldn't shock anyone that conservative GAF has so completely divorced itself from reality.

 

[AkuMifune]

I find it unlikely that if we were part alien we would be so similar to apes, but not have many attributes that were similar to whatever this alien was.

LOL! My dad's not the only nutjob. A quick search revealed a whole contingent of scientists who believe that humans were just a cross-breeding experiment between aliens and apes:

The authors of Mankind - Child of the Stars (Otto Binder and Max Flindt) tried to find “the missing link” through supposed breeding experiments between early hominids and aliens.

All [the enigmas of human evolution] Flindt and Binder claimed, were solved if we realized that our species is a hybrid between “Apeman” and “Spaceman.” They conclude that “starmen visited Earth and mated with early females (perhaps hominids) to sire the modern human race of Homo sapiens.”

To bring it back to the OP, could you imagine if this were true and we met our "fathers" in space some day? they'd be like "Oh shit! The freaks made it off the planet!"

 

[Future PhaZe]

I'm doubtful. In order to explore such a thing we'd need a pretty long period of peace. Right now, the cost of space exploration is far to large to create the necessary technology. With the wars and other negative issues that have been plaguing the world, we don't have the funds to achieve that.

I think it'd take a pretty drastic thing to happen in order for us to do it. Something like absolutely positive proof that Earth will be unable to contain life at a future point. Under such circumstances, the world might be able to come together to achieve the goal of trying to colonize other places in the solar system.

 

[fse]

LOL! My dad's not the only nutjob. A quick search revealed a whole contingent of scientists who believe that humans were just a cross-breeding experiment between aliens and apes:



To bring it back to the OP, could you imagine if this were true and we met our "fathers" in space some day? they'd be like "Oh shit! The freaks made it off the planet!"

haha

 

[BocoDragon]

Well I tend to think that among tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way alone, there'd be a suitable replacement for Earth.

It's possible that earth biology is based upon a million random "earth unique" events, and no other planet could sustain us in the way we expect. Terraforming might be possible, or it might be perfectly impossible, and too massively long term.

If such a planet exists, it's possible that we could NEVER get to it. There might never be any impedus to make multi-generational journeys. Such a journey might not have a sufficient energy source. There might be no way to open wormholes, etc.

Assuming the above are possible... it's just so likely that the human race would never have the need, the ability, the desire to, etc... Even over millions of years! When exactly is it most advantageous for a creature to take his chances in the void rather than in an interconnected biosphere? I know we have pioneers, but come on... Perhaps the obstacle of space is so high that no poor conditions on earth would ever mandate such a thing.

Of course, we could find a new energy source, discover hyperspace, nanomachines could somehow make this easy, etc. Human beings colonizing the stars could be as inevitable as europeans reaching the new world.... or it might be so vastly impossible and lacking in profit that it would not happen even until the most far flung estimation of earth's doom.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

LOL! My dad's not the only nutjob. A quick search revealed a whole contingent of scientists who believe that humans were just a cross-breeding experiment between aliens and apes:



To bring it back to the OP, could you imagine if this were true and we met our "fathers" in space some day? they'd be like "Oh shit! The freaks made it off the planet!"

I just envisioned Farnsworth explaining that on Futurama.

Awesome.

 

[Kosma]

Meeting our alien makers, and knowing they cross breeded us with apes would be very humiliating.

 

[Karma Kramer]

Meeting our alien makers, and knowing they cross breeded us with apes would be very humiliating.

Not as humiliating as them actually fucking apes.

 

[mAcOdIn]

LOL! My dad's not the only nutjob. A quick search revealed a whole contingent of scientists who believe that humans were just a cross-breeding experiment between aliens and apes:



To bring it back to the OP, could you imagine if this were true and we met our "fathers" in space some day? they'd be like "Oh shit! The freaks made it off the planet!"

Yeah, I'm sure those early human ancestors must have looked mighty attractive to an advanced civilized alien race. The Tower of Babel was also a spaceship right?

That stuff's fun to read as entertainment, but this whole aliens came to Earth because they needed resources, made us, and then promptly left to seemingly face whatever calamity was coming their way is just silly.

Does he really believe that stuff, or is it just a passing hobby?

 

[BocoDragon]

I really don't think human intelligence is anything more than a more complex version of the intelligence found in all animals. Alien crossbreeding is so not necessary to explain us.

 

[speculawyer]

Like war has ever been about Gods and prophets.

Tribalism. The Gods & prophets may not be the source of conflict but often the delineation between tribes that war over other pointless reasons. Such as 'holy' land.

 

[BocoDragon]

Tribalism. The Gods & prophets may not be the source of conflict but often the delineation between tribes that war over other pointless reasons. Such as 'holy' land.

otherwise known as "that's really, really, REALLY our land!"

 

[Druz]

The human race has really only existed for thousands of years. I think by then we will have evolved into something better.

I think humans are going to evolve much slower than the process already is. We have science and medicine, greatly increasing the chance of saving people who wouldn't normally survive ultimately filtering out bad genes. Just sayin.

 

[Karma Kramer]

I think humans are going to evolve much slower than the process already is. We have science and medicine, greatly increasing the chance of saving people who wouldn't normally survive ultimately filtering out bad genes. Just sayin.

But... science and medicine could also alter our DNA giving everyone the best genes!

 

[plovie]

I think humans are going to evolve much slower than the process already is. We have science and medicine, greatly increasing the chance of saving people who wouldn't normally survive ultimately filtering out bad genes. Just sayin.

But genetic engineering and other technologies could open the door for transhumanism.
And your avatar seems somewhat appropriate here. :lol

 

[kevm3]

If we can barely take care of ourselves on this planet where resources are abundant and readily available, I really don't see us living on other planets for a very, very long time, if ever.

 

[Green Shinobi]

I think humans are going to evolve much slower than the process already is. We have science and medicine, greatly increasing the chance of saving people who wouldn't normally survive ultimately filtering out bad genes. Just sayin.

Which is never more evident than when reading GAF.

 

[BocoDragon]

I think humans are going to evolve much slower than the process already is. We have science and medicine, greatly increasing the chance of saving people who wouldn't normally survive ultimately filtering out bad genes. Just sayin.

Check this out

 

[Tyrone Slothrop]

remember we're pretty much in the stone age of space travel

thankfully, technology tends to advance exponentially... like at the begining of 20th century, we'd just discovered airplanes. and then not many years later, boom, we're using them in a war.

space travel will see its "boom" point at one point or another. but i doubt any of us will live to see it.

 

[CajoleJuice]

We need advances beyond anything comprehensible to us at this moment for this to happen. I like to believe it will happen EVENTUALLY, but it's really tough. All these past advances people are talking about were within our knowledge of physics. We need to learn how to manipulate fucking space-time -- in ways some of our greatest minds think impossible -- for us to colonize the galaxy. But hey, science has never ceased to amaze. I don't see us getting anywhere in my lifetime, though. We need to focus a bit more on the home front at the moment, anyhow.

 

[Zeenbor]

If we can reverse-engineer the brain and create an artificial, mechanical version of it to transfer our conscious to, we might be able to live long enough to travel to another habitable planet... but at that point it won't matter since we won't be human anymore.

 

[Kodiak]

Check this out

So basically each continent is going to evolve its own race of humans? Sounds like the perfect set up for a RTS.

 

[Karma Kramer]

So basically each continent is going to evolve its own race of humans? Sounds like the perfect set up for a RTS.

:lol

 

[Hsieh]

I think it's possible. Civilization is around 7000 years old. From a geological standpoint, that's nothing. The Earth is over 4 billion years old, while the Universe is over 15 billion years old. I think it's possible that if human beings are still around millions of years from now, humans can have used generational ships to reach other solar systems. Each star colony will essentially largely isolated form the other star colonies. Communications between star colonies will be possible, but will have ping times in the span of years. Each colony can then send out generational ships to other uncolonized stars. If this process repeats itself over millions or possibly even billions of years, it's possible for humans to colonize the galaxy.

 

[909er]

I think it's possible. Civilization is around 7000 years old. From a geological standpoint, that's nothing. The Earth is over 4 billion years old, while the Universe is over 15 billion years old. I think it's possible that if human beings are still around millions of years from now, humans can have used generational ships to reach other solar systems. Each star colony will essentially largely isolated form the other star colonies. Communications between star colonies will be possible, but will have ping times in the span of years. Each colony can then send out generational ships to other uncolonized stars. If this process repeats itself over millions or possibly even billions of years, it's possible for humans to colonize the galaxy.

That reminds me of something I read a while ago.

"Assuming a typical colony spacing of 10 light-years, a ship speed of 10 percent that of light, and a period of 400 years between the foundation of a colony and its sending out colonies of its own, the colonization wave front will expand at an average speed of 0.02 light-year a year. As the galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, it takes no more than about five million years to colonize it completely. Though a long time in human terms, this is only 0.05 percent of the age of the galaxy. Compared with the other relevant astronomical and biological timescales, it is essentially instantaneous. The greatest uncertainty is the time required for a colony to establish itself and spawn new settlements. A reasonable upper limit might be 5,000 years, the time it has taken human civilization to develop from the earliest cities to spaceflight. In that case, full galactic colonization would take about 50 million years."

It would be interesting if humanity truly does become the dominant lifeform in the galaxy. It'd be even more interesting to see what the descendants of those humans would look like in a 100 million years.

 

[CajoleJuice]

The best argument against the inevitability of this is that no aliens have come to our planet yet. They've had billions of years to evolve and get here. But of course, some people would say there has been alien contact, so...

 

[Karma Kramer]

The best argument against the inevitability of this is that no aliens have come to our planet yet. They've had billions of years to evolve and get here. But of course, some people would say there has been alien contact, so...

Aliens have been here... i've seen UFO's

 

[Eteric Rice]

The best argument against the inevitability of this is that no aliens have come to our planet yet. They've had billions of years to evolve and get here. But of course, some people would say there has been alien contact, so...

No aliens that we know of.

Ya never know, though.

 

[Druz]

jesus christ did that get shot down quick!

I sit corrected

 

[CajoleJuice]

Yea, maybe it's not the BEST argument, but it always comes to my mind. Interstellar travel is just a lot harder than most people think. Space is goddamn fucking huge.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

All I am saying is that life will find way... and I can't imagine an environmental disaster that would kill everyone on earth. I can see a lot of people dieing... but everyone? Na... some rich folks would build a big fortress or go hang out in space or something.

Life will find a way, sure. But "Life" how you're using it possesses a sort of ingenuity, versatility, a flair for improvisation and adaptation. Basically, "Life" in this context has brains.

As a global species, I don't think we could consider Humanity as having much brains. We have some great minds, definitely. But those minds are few and far between. I'm reminded of a quote from Men In Black 1:

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

 

[909er]

The best argument against the inevitability of this is that no aliens have come to our planet yet. They've had billions of years to evolve and get here. But of course, some people would say there has been alien contact, so...

What if they did come, but it was 10, 15, 50, 100 or more million years ago? How many intelligent species capable of interstellar flight can exist at the same time and in a close enough vicinity to our planet to visit it?

I've always wondered how many technological civilizations are out there. After all, if a few things in history were different, we'd still be living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that's existed for 100,000 years, and yet we'd be no stupider than we are today. Intelligence doesn't necessarily mean people are gonna build space ships.