Life Which of these things will happen in the next fifty years?

ThaVirus · 11-29-2014, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

In my opinion, it's just a transplant like any other transplant. You're simply transplanting the whole body at once, and in a manner that doesn't require a donor. We transplant hips and knees with manmade parts all the time.

In essence, it would solve the problem of aging. You could transplant yourself into your 18 year-old body with the wisdom that you have at 50 or 60.

While not intending to go against your religious beliefs, I may actually want this more than the dinosaur thing now that I think about it.

Assuming we could tackle the issue Discuss Thrower mentioned, I wouldn't want to see this happen unless we also had the ability to terraform and colonize distant planets as well.

We're already dealing with a space/food/environmental harm issue. That would certainly only be compounded if the elite were able to live "forever".

Speaking of, I wonder what is the number of people this Earth could actually hold. I guess that depends on our agricultural technology as well as tech in energy and other things.

Hmmmm.

**Rain Man** · 11-29-2014, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Assuming we could tackle the issue Discuss Thrower mentioned, I wouldn't want to see this happen unless we also had the ability to terraform and colonize distant planets as well.

We're already dealing with a space/food/environmental harm issue. That would certainly only be compounded if the elite were able to live "forever".

Speaking of, I wonder what is the number of people this Earth could actually hold. I guess that depends on our agricultural technology as well as tech in energy and other things.

Hmmmm.

I agree that that is the biggest downside. You'd still have people dying in accidents and catastrophic things like heart attacks, but the population would still increase.

My other concern is that the technology might be priced so that the rich and powerful could do it, but normal people couldn't. While that would prevent the population explosion you predict, it would cause a lot of other problems. However, I would hope that capitalism would prevail due to the profit motive of transcloning for the masses. (I just coined the term "transcloning". Let's try to get it into common use.)

ThaVirus · 11-29-2014, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I agree that that is the biggest downside. You'd still have people dying in accidents and catastrophic things like heart attacks, but the population would still increase.

My other concern is that the technology might be priced so that the rich and powerful could do it, but normal people couldn't. While that would prevent the population explosion you predict, it would cause a lot of other problems. However, I would hope that capitalism would prevail due to the profit motive of transcloning for the masses. (I just coined the term "transcloning". Let's try to get it into common use.)

I mentioned "elites" in my original post. That kind of tech wouldn't be made available to anyone in the middle class or lower, at least from the start. So you would likely only be looking at a small portion of the population that would be living "forever". Those with more education also tend to reproduce less so I wouldn't expect a huge population explosion but that could become an issue maybe a couple hundred years after inception.

**Rain Man** · 11-29-2014, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

I mentioned "elites" in my original post. That kind of tech wouldn't be made available to anyone in the middle class or lower, at least from the start. So you would likely only be looking at a small portion of the population that would be living "forever". Those with more education also tend to reproduce less so I wouldn't expect a huge population explosion but that could become an issue maybe a couple hundred years after inception.

If my wife and I cloned back into our 18 year-old bodies, I wonder if we would have kids the next time around. I suspect that most of the transcloners wouldn't reproduce. They'd just be extra mouths to feed forever, as kind of a fixed cost in the food equation.

View Poll Results: Which of these will happen within 50 years? Check all that apply.
A human celebrates his or her 130th birthday	37	29.13%
A mile-high skyscraper is built somewhere in the world	14	11.02%
A single war produces more than 20 million deaths	36	28.35%
A third party holds the US Presidency	36	28.35%
A U.S. president is assassinated	52	40.94%
Anti-gravity is brought into everyday use	10	7.87%
Artificial intelligence routinely conducts media interviews	23	18.11%
At least one dinosaur will be alive	10	7.87%
At least one human will have their brain transplanted into a cloned version of their own body.	17	13.39%
Brick and mortar stores will cease to be the major means of purchases in the U.S.	53	41.73%
Chiefs win a Super Bowl	79	62.20%
Cure for cancer (Late-stage survival rates > 97%)	29	22.83%
Earthquake of Magnitude 8.3 or greater strikes somewhere in the continental U.S.	73	57.48%
Evidence of a pre-Ice Age civilization is discovered	12	9.45%
Faster than light travel is achieved (human transport)	8	6.30%
Flying cars	23	18.11%
Food shortages lead to permanent ban on consumption of meat in at least one country (population > 10 million)	23	18.11%
Households manufacture all necessary goods themselves, purchasing only raw materials and plans for 3D printing	14	11.02%
Human sets foot on Mars	66	51.97%
Humans can communicate directly with at least two species of animals.	14	11.02%
Implantable computer/phone/internet devices are in 80+% of Americans	33	25.98%
Large scale nuclear bomb dropped or launched in a hostile act	40	31.50%
Major epidemic kills 10% or more of the US population	18	14.17%
Major epidemic kills 25% or more of a nation’s population (nation > 10 million people)	23	18.11%
Major meteor strike or other interplanetary event kills 1 million or more people	5	3.94%
One-world government is established	14	11.02%
Prenatal selection of certain traits will be possible for the middle class (e.g., height, nose shape, eye color)	46	36.22%
Peaceful resolution to the Israel-Arab conflicts is achieved	1	0.79%
Permanent cessation of Islamic extremism and terrorism	2	1.57%
Permanent human presence on Mars	5	3.94%
Permanent human presence on the moon	18	14.17%
Poverty is eliminated in the U.S., based on minimum standards of living that are achieved	5	3.94%
Proof of extraterrestrial life is confirmed	35	27.56%
Race is no longer an issue of conflict, contention, or policy in the U.S.	5	3.94%
Robot labor means that humans do not have to work to obtain basic needs (food, clothing, shelter)	13	10.24%
Robot labor provides household servants for the middle class (maid, butler, etc.)	26	20.47%
Small-scale radiation dirty bomb set off in hostile act	60	47.24%
Space tourism becomes a feasible option for the American middle class	33	25.98%
The US Senate OR House becomes majority female	8	6.30%
The world ends as described in the holy book of your choice	6	4.72%
Time travel to the future (more than one day)	1	0.79%
Time travel to the past (more than one day)	2	1.57%
U.S. adds at least one new state from territory that is not part of a current state	32	25.20%
U.S. is no longer the world’s most powerful nation	70	55.12%
U.S. no longer needs petroleum products as energy source	25	19.69%
U.S. splits into two or more countries	10	7.87%
None of these things will occur within 50 years.	1	0.79%
Poll fail. We will invent time travel, so the future will cease to exist.	5	3.94%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 127. You may not vote on this poll