178 replies to this topic

[MinDonner]

If only Hitler had been more rad, we could have had those decades ago.

[Nukelavee]

What Min really means is...if we had caught Hitler's head before the UFO's escaped with it...we could have had those.

Maybe Robo-Stalin can fetch them back for us...

I'm too not awake yet for this but... if GM strains could affect non-GM strains, Robin, why not the reverse?

[Sci-2]

I'd like to think we'll find a way to make ourselves smarter.

[Datepalm]

We won't, but there may be hope for our children.

Our robot children.

[Castel]

Robin Hill, on 05 May 2012 - 10:57 AM, said:

I'm not certain, but that last sentence scares me.  What does it say about a society that creates things to increase the worlds population when a good portion of the current population is hungry?

Uh, the same thing it says about us now? I mean, people have kids everyday and increase the population when they could just as easily adopt someone in a terrible position, and then they laugh at the people who do so and call those kids the "latest thing" like they're puppies in bags. This is nothing new.

As for what the future will hold,unless we can advance medical science we are in trouble, by that point most antibiotics will become unreliable, which can make even the smallest of operations problematic.

But on the bright side, there have been advances against cancer so that's good.

I think that we'll finally get a better understanding of the human brain, which can help solve all sorts of ethical questions like the role of science in morality, etc insight into AI creation, and so on.

And testing during pregnancy will hopefully get better or at least more accepted, so parents can screen for a wider range of hereditary diseases and hopefully get rid of them.

Reliable male contraceptives that we don't have to get at our local drug store.--see: RISUG.

I would say that religion would be gone, at least from the public sphere or as any sort of authority on policy and science, but seeing as it's clung on tenaciously, like a zombie with it's last morsel of food, I'm not so sure..

This is more of a bucket list but I think that we are pretty much on the path to most of these.

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Our robot children.

I can only hope. So many issues could be avoided if we just bypassed a few million years of evolutionary thinking and development. It was useful then, now, I'm sure we can do better.

/Not even joking,

[Francis Buck]

See what I mean? Already in this thread we have nuclear war, catastrophic climate change to the point of being an apocalypse, massive economic meltdown, overpopulation, genetically engineered crops destroying the world's food sources...did I miss anything else? Let's thrown grey goo and, hell, killer robots just to be safe.

It's honestly kind of hilarious how predictable the responses are.

[Derfel Cadarn]

The employment market will suck. High streets will be decimated by online shopping. Optimistically, clothing and food stores will still be ok, as people will be reluctant to buy those items other than in person. This will have knock-on effects on public transport and the hospitality industry during weekends (i.e fast food, restaurants etc during weekend afternoons).

The lucky ones will be those living near amazon depots who'll be looking for shelf-stacking/packaging jobs.

Energy, environmental and fuel crisis. If only we'd seen them coming sooner. Oh, wait...

[Ser Robin Hill]

Francis Buck, on 06 May 2012 - 12:05 PM, said:

See what I mean? Already in this thread we have nuclear war, catastrophic climate change to the point of being an apocalypse, massive economic meltdown, overpopulation, genetically engineered crops destroying the world's food sources...did I miss anything else? Let's thrown grey goo and, hell, killer robots just to be safe.

It's honestly kind of hilarious how predictable the responses are.

It has the makings of a great summer movie.  Has anyone thought of weaponized flesh eating bacteria, yet?

[Lord of Oop North]

Nukelavee, on 05 May 2012 - 04:34 PM, said:

I'm holding out for teh raccoons to take over, actually.

The things that would likely "end" us are the ones we'll never see coming, or have any chance against, like every other major extinction event.

So far as GM seeds go... what if ti went the other way, and they became fertile, rather than single generation/

NATURE FINDS A WAY. LIKE THOSE LESBIAN FROG-DINOSAURS!

[Nukelavee]

See?  If LooN and Jeff Goldblum agree with me...

FB - well, lets be honest, there are only so many ways things can go wrong for a species - loss of food, climate change, new species showing up...

Hmm.  What if... the real dominant life on the planet is viral and/or bacteria?  Not in terms of numbers, but...they've always been calling the shots.

Our rise was just their adapting the world to suit themselves - wall to wall single species hosts, like a garden that expands on it's own.

In the near future, our internal overlords will decide upon more stylish, cool hosts, like rainbow farting flying unicorns, and we will end, except for a few in the bargain bins.

Or, if we do achieve AI, we realize we can also fit human intelligences in the same media, so, we all upload.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

I don't really think that online retailers have much more headway to make. Sure Amazon can destroy Best Buy and maybe Barnes and Noble, but things like food and clothes will always be bought in person, at least until such time as virtual reality is capable of fully replicating the in-person shopping experience... But if that ever happens we will all just hook ourselves up to virtual porn and the species will die off anyhow).

Actually I predict that Amazon will be less powerful in 10 years. Cash-strapped governments are eventually going to force them to pay sales tax, which will dull their edge even as it faces more and more competitors.

(null)

[ICE CROW]

WrathOfSQL, on 06 May 2012 - 06:39 PM, said:

I don't really think that online retailers have much more headway to make. Sure Amazon can destroy Best Buy and maybe Barnes and Noble, but things like food and clothes will always be bought in person, at least until such time as virtual reality is capable of fully replicating the in-person shopping experience... But if that ever happens we will all just hook ourselves up to virtual porn and the species will die off anyhow).

People have been ordering groceries and having them delivered for years, Korea has taken this idea and going all out with it. The link below shows how people are using their cell phones to order groceries while waiting for a train. This is the future and it's here now.

http://www.geek.com/...tores-20110628/

[Gillio]

i have heard of people visiting department stores  to try on clothes, especially the more exclusive brands, take photos of labels etc with their phone, then go home to order onlne.

Then they dont stop for a coffee at the shops

[Serious Callers Only]

Once you have good enough cameras and good enough algorithms you can "try out" clothes in your home.

ex: http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

similar process will eventually work for bodies and clothes

(this technology btw, is going to kill the work of lots of artists)

edit: http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

Edited by Serious Callers Only, 07 May 2012 - 03:17 AM.

[eupfhoria]

your balls, in a fucking vise grip

[Josephxoxo]

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n 100 years, the white people will be bred almost out of existence (unless various fertility encouragement programs in Europe become much more successful).
4. Per various demographic projections, things will get really bad and then get a lot better as all us old Westerners die off.

Got that right. Though I suspect a civil war will more likely happen in Europe. And it will be a long time before that happens in America.

[MinDonner]

Lololol. Yeah, really. This is entirely due to the definition of "white" being "unpolluted by nasty different-coloured genes"; every other race is getting mixed up as well, but I guess that doesn't count. If the OMG DEMISE OF THE WHITE RACE occurs, maybe that fucking attitude will die along with it, and good fucking riddance.

[Ser Robin Hill]

MinDonner, on 07 May 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

Lololol. Yeah, really. This is entirely due to the definition of "white" being "unpolluted by nasty different-coloured genes"; every other race is getting mixed up as well, but I guess that doesn't count. If the OMG DEMISE OF THE WHITE RACE occurs, maybe that fucking attitude will die along with it, and good fucking riddance.

And I suppose that sentiment isn't racist.   What hypocrites.

[Nukelavee]

That rant would have so much more weight if, y'know, only WASP's felt that way, because no other ethnic group has EVER considered themselves to be superior to every other person on the planet.

[MinDonner]

The fuck? If we had a Japanese person here bewailing the future demise of the Japanese race due to icky ethnic pollution, then I'd be saying the same thing. But we don't, we have an idiot white supremacist instead, so I responded accordingly. For the record, please include the "purity" of all other "races" to be included in my rant. They're all doomed and quite right too.