Ideas about humanity’s fate are evolving

Geeta in India:
With the kind of diseases that are popping up, and with the earth becoming poisoned and depleted of essentials for human survival, I do not think the species will last a whole lot of years to expect to see the effects of genetic blending that is taking place. Because of the very unnatural mode of living today, evolution will not result in the survival of the fittest gene, and therefore the slightest unexpected natural calamity could destroy the human race. There will certainly be a new species that would evolve, which is likely to inhabit the waters or maybe below the earth's crust for survival.

Danila Medvedev, Russia:
"Which of the scenarios for the future of humans sounds most likely to you?" Why can't you say it? The false journalistic objectivity? The fear of bias? My rough estimates:

1. Unihumans — 0%. Assuming we have a global peaceful society, radical technological progress is inevitable.
2. Survivalistians — 3%. Even in the unlikely case we wipe the humanity out, it will not take long enough to rebuild it. And it is rather unlikely (though possible) that we can destroy the civilization completely without destroying the species.
3. Numans — 20%.
4. Cyborgs — 30%.
5. Astrans — 0%. If we have advanced space travel, it is inconceivable that natural evolution is still allowed to continues.

The missing road is, of course, the posthuman, radically different forms, including, for example, uploading, merging of humans into hive minds, etc. The article is nice, but fundamentally flawed, because it treats all speculation as equally valid, which is obviously wrong. Scenarios 1, 2 and 5 are useless, except that the make some semi-valid comments (like "the future will be global," "we will travel to stars," etc.).

Lafayette Eaton, Santiago, Chile:
... The human species is doing everything it can to prevent natural selection from acting on us.  Modern medicine allows many people to survive and reproduce who could not have done so only a few centuries ago.  Some of our greatest efforts are directed at helping persons to survive and reproduce, who could not have done so "on their own." ...

Survivalistian: Protective brow and skin layer contribute to "radiation hardening."

If the human species is to evolve, it will be because some selective force appears which kills many of us before we can reproduce, while others survive and procreate because their genes allow them to resist this "selective force."  Or, and I tremble at the idea, because there is a global decision to let only certain types of people reproduce, those who have genetic constitutions that we deem "desirable."

There are a few selective forces around which may make humans evolve.  AIDS is one, and perhaps some of the contaminants we are releasing into our environment.  However, the "evolution" they may produce is very specific. It would involve resistance to AIDS, the contaminant, or whatever force is killing very large numbers of people.

Evolution is not "going" anywhere, it is simply a hereditary response to selective forces.  Unless these forces exist, by design or by accident, we should not expect humans to evolve in any important way.  And we can't even predict what this evolution will be, unless we know what the "force" is, and which genetic constitutions allow individuals to survive it.

Mehul Gohil, Nairobi, Kenya:
I am a chessplayer and disagree with this article on one point. It is stated that Garry Kasparov's loss to the machine Deep Blue is a "vivid example" of machines dominating us in some intellectual spheres. This can only be said by someone who has limited understanding of chess.

If the games in that famous match are analyzed with a modicum of understanding (simply that of a competent amateur) it becomes apparent that Deep Blue didn't play that well. True, it did win the match, but that was because of Kasparov making an elementary blunder in the crucial game — an error a club player would have recognized. In fact, the remarkable thing was that Deep Blue was unable to beat Kasparov in the three games where Kasparov employed amateurish opening ideas not seen at the grandmaster level.

Current computer programs such as Fritz are much stronger than Deep Blue, and they run on your ordinary desktop.

It is one thing to believe media hype, and another to see the facts for yourself.

Pirshing Gudmundsson, Reykjavik, Iceland:

Astran: Body hair just gets in the way during interstellar trips.

My own idea is: Programmed robots can be sent with all necessary packed equipment, chemicals and materials in spaceships to the desired planet to inhabit, to install stations for assembling humans (Astrans) or whatever and everything else that follows, then beam humans(Astrans) from earth stations to that planet, which will be assembled and put together by the programmed robots. In this case, the programmed robots will be in charge until the human(Astrans) arrive. Then both the robots and humans (Astrans) should be working together to do the rest of the work.

Camillus Fernando, Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka:
We will develop along the lines that God would want us to develop.

Kalyan in Kuwait:
Our children are our future. So how you want them to become depends entirely on the social etiquette of the day. If designer babies become the trend, will we be following the footsteps of the megalomaniac Hitler? Luckily, he was not a visionary but a mad land-grabber who lost out to those whose lands he wanted to usurp.

... Our evolution depends directly on our IQ. So, teachers, governments, cults and societies, beware what you fill the minds of impressionable youths with. Give them knowledge, and let them decide what is good for themselves....

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