Human beings are an obsolete technology

[SirCollis]

"Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced."
Terence McKenna

I often wonder about that statement looking at the world today, think about it, say we put our self proclaimed sovereignty on technology on hold.

Say plans have plans that plan requires technology to solves just they way the humans do, however the ultimate plan is to procreate and spread, just like humans.

So in the beginning plants relied on wild, but wind to transport seeds and pollen. So they create the technology called insects to transport pollen and animals to transport seeds. And this goes on and on until the technology humans come, but humans then create technology to better transport seeds. Because lets face it, we have to transport seeds.

However humans have a weakness, we weak and say the next step for plants to transport seeds is to go into space and other planets, but humans as a technology cannot.

But robots can,

I was watching a clip on a robot designed and programmed to learn, and it learns and what it does not know it can simply download from the internet, and unlike humans it does not have to repeat the skill over and over again to learn, once learnt it is learnt, in addition it would not die in space. thus making humans quite pointless.

Given 20 years or so what do you guys think, would humans still exist as the dominant species on the planet or are we indeed obsolete and will we be replaced by machines?

 

[-=SS=-]

Well I'm open to the idea that humans exist to fulfill some purpose that nature has set out for us, I mean looking around at the biological kingdom there's plenty of species that exist with some kind of role to play but are blissfully unaware of it. Not sure we're here for the plants though. A theory that got me thinking was the idea that maybe we're food for something else, like we're not the top of the food chain, that throughout nature there is a transmutation of energy to higher and higher states.

I don't think machine technology will replace biological organisms for that reason. There is no essence to them, no energy that can be harvested by higher life forms.

 

[ebola?]

Given 20 years or so what do you guys think, would humans still exist as the dominant species on the planet or are we indeed obsolete and will we be replaced by machines?

Why would we remain separate from our machines in any sense? Technological modification of biology (particularly neurology) and mechanical implementation of intelligence (and likely eventually consciousness) will cooccur, as they have been already, eventually intertwining to the extent that the border between biology and technology will dissolve. It is also a somewhat misleading abstraction to think of ourselves as separate from our technology: since the inception of our species, we have relied decisively on the creative use of tools for our very survival, but also communication, aesthetic creation, cognitive processing, etc. To be human is to creatively transform nature acting socially, and one cannot remove technology from this equation.

ebola

 

[RedRum OG]

^this

pure machines will always be around, but more and more humans are using technology on themselves, and it wont be long before small additions and changes are a permanent part of the human way of life.

i think humans are very outdated however, at least mentally. your average human uses such flawed logic..... i mean just look at the existence of religion. 99% of them are highly reminiscent of santa and the easter bunny, except for adults. and war.... such meaningless hatred and anger, and it is everywhere, ubiquitous on every level, husbands beating wives, kids being bullied, it is human nature, and ive been absolutely disgusted to be one of this species since i was a little kid

however there is something very unique about humans, they make good stories, have that intangible "human experience" thing going on

but as for the bigger picture, human beings: yuck.

 

[rickolasnice]

To be honest I can see SkyNet, iRobot and the many variations of the tale as a very strong possibility for our future.

But plants didn't make animals to move seeds around.. that's not how evolution works. There is no plan or guide.. We (you, me, them, every living thing) are just one of billions of intermediate "stages" of life.

 

[Radius]

"Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced."
Terence McKenna

Jesus dude that Terrence Mckenna quote gave me goosebumps. I had a trip with MJ and Salvia the other day that was seriously something like this. I envisioned two banana plants embracing and kissing while holding a human baby.

Wow.

 

[Pagey]

Why would we remain separate from our machines in any sense? Technological modification of biology (particularly neurology) and mechanical implementation of intelligence (and likely eventually consciousness) will cooccur, as they have been already, eventually intertwining to the extent that the border between biology and technology will dissolve. It is also a somewhat misleading abstraction to think of ourselves as separate from our technology: since the inception of our species, we have relied decisively on the creative use of tools for our very survival, but also communication, aesthetic creation, cognitive processing, etc. To be human is to creatively transform nature acting socially, and one cannot remove technology from this equation.

ebola

Yeah, I agree with this, I don't see how the two can be dissociable to that extent seeing as humans are necessary for technology to occur. You could of course argue that in that case, our sole purpose on this planet is to bring about that technology, but still - they're essentially linked.

It's an interesting idea though. I definitely agree with the idea that whatever our purpose here may be (if even there is some kind of 'purpose, which I don't tend to think) it's indistinguishable from that of other living organisms.