Ask A Genius 480 – The Wonderful Future and Happy Endings
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/12/21
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I like happy endings. Does the end of the human era with the slow dismantling of problems about comprehension of the human organism lead to one?
Rick Rosner: I have been thinking. It is now clear that humanity is going to have a happy ending. There is a certain irony to that. That is, it is clear that it is highly unlikely – that given the state of technology that there is little chance – humanity on the planet will be wiped out either by something of our own making or by something not of our own making.
That is before we can build a structure that will intercept all possible asteroids which we eventually will. It is unlikely that our planet will be destroyed if the asteroid is going to hit us or that a random black hole will cross the path of Earth and destroy it – if it isn’t the sun burning out.
It will burn out five billion years before it is supposed to or any other cosmic accident will happen in the next 50 to 100 years before we can get a handle on most cosmic accidents. Similarly, it is apparent that the accelerating pace of technology and the scope of technology is such that we are going to have something like the singularity.
That the singularity people believe that all human questions and problems will be answered and solved. Although, probably not the one the singularity people sketch because their schedule is it all happens by around 2040.
I guess you could call me a slow singularity person where it all happens, but it may take another hundred years past that to get everything going. We will solve all those medical problems. They will be understood, and almost all medical problems will be addressable and even if they are not within 100 years. You’ll be able to move out of your body.
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