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theadvancedapes  ·  3781 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can We Live Forever?

    Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

I know it may be hard to believe, but the event itself is not a moral question. It would be like a hunter-gatherer saying that everyone else is immoral for practicing agriculture or industry. The next transition is going to occur (unless we go extinct).

    We feel we are destined -- that it is our right -- to control the natural order.

High intelligence seems to be quite good at ordering nature to our own purposes. All life tries to do this - we are just the best at it. We are not perfect at it - the next intelligence will be better.

    What does eternal life mean for Earth's already diminishing resources?

The next system will be based on an infinite resource (e.g., solar).

    And besides that, would we even still be human?

It would be a post-human world.

    Sure, species evolve. But have they ever been self induced like this would be?

No. High intelligence has never existed before. This seems to be what our intelligence is pushing towards. A complete eradication of the biochemical pathway - and a complete embrace of the technocultural pathway. The technocultural pathway is everything we consider human. The biochemical pathway is everything we consider animal. From this perspective you can say that the singularity will usher in the first true humans.

    I'll be watching humanity's self-destruction from the safety of my cave.

I'm guessing I'll see you in the global brain.