Will the 22nd Century be the start of the era of a paradise?

Hear me out.

Technological advances have been increasing exponentially, human population is the same.



Look at this chart of the human population from 10,000 BC to 2000 AD.
We are projected to reach world population peak in 2055 at 8.7 billion people, we are in a very special time in
human history and I for one would be able to witness the peak less anything unforeseen happens to me.

Right now, there are still widespread poverty and illness and diseases are rampant in third-world countries which are
coping with the sudden increase in population. Fertility rates are increasing, but healthcare in these areas are not.
First-world countries like America also has its issues, like unemployment and debt problems. We are in a world of problems and sadness.However, things are about to change. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has made many predictions about technology in the world and he has been mainly spot on.

This exponential rate of progress - the fact that everything about computing continues to double at fixed intervals, from the amount of performance you can buy for a dollar to the value of Microsoft stock - is why we can't predict the future of computing. There's nothing else like this, in any other field. If transportation technology had improved at the same rate as information technology over the past 30 years, then an automobile would be the size of a toaster, cost $200, go 100,000 miles per hour, and travel 150,000 miles on a gallon of fuel. A Boeing 747, introduced 30 years ago, would cost hundreds of dollars today, rather than hundreds of millions. Ridiculous? Not in computing, where today's $3,000 laptop personal computer is vastly more capable than the $3 million building-sized institutional computer of just a couple of decades ago. The implications of this sort of progress are impossible to predict.

Can you imagine a world without poverty, without diseases and crime where everyone is happy and there are unlimited things to do? All these could very well be a reality by 2100 or earlier hopefully. Technology would make money obsolete, Ray Kurzweil has predicted a technological singularity to happen in 2045 where A.Is would finally have consciousness and be as smart if not smarter than today's humans. From then on, the pace of technology will increase hundreds-fold. We might even become one with the machines and become trans-humans. Nano-technology would be readily available and would regenerate any defective cells and eliminate all illness within us. We will literally be immortal, replenishing our aging cells with new ones with the help of nanobots. Look up respected researchers like Aubrey De Grey, who claims that the first immortal might be already living amongst us. Without poverty there can also be no logic for any crime, so crime rates will almost be non-existent. In fact, virtual reality by them might be so real that we can act out our fantasies in virtual reality rather then spend time in the real world. Want to be spend your holiday in Paris, or do you want to live life like a rock star? It is all programmable, just hook up ourselves to a machine like in the matrix and it will all be possible...

I'm all very excited for the future, and I hope you are too..

What planet have you been living on? Human technology has far surpassed human wisdom. The further technology is developed, the more it will be used by those in power to control those who are not.

This is a simple, self evident truth that can not be denied in whole or even in part. It's the way it is.

I can't seem to find a postive outcome for correlation betweeen the population peak/immoratality aspects of this, although both seem to be very real and accurate... seems what we'd be more on the horizon for is a large pandemic/genocide event to 'stabilzie' the world's population. Most of the technological concerns of the thesis I feel have already been developed and implemented, but it's something that none of us 'ordinary' citizens will ever catch a glimpse of it. only through these little internvals being masked as exponential developments are we even begining to noticed as an emergence of future trends- by the mainstream anyways. (Check out Quantam Computing if you don't believe me, it's a very real sytem that is really very mind-blowing)... If one were to belive that the years 2100+ are going to be the years of prosperirty, it seems they would also need to be concerned for the vast majority of people living in the time until then

Don't hold your breath, OP. Things are going to get a lot worse before they ever get better. The current system is in place for a reason. It allows those in control to maintain that control. As Helious said, any new technologies will be used to further that control. It's a bleak outlook I know, but I don't see anything changing that outlook in the near future except maybe a world-wide reset, and even that isn't a guarantee. The same people seem to rise to the top again and again.

icyboy771z

I'm all very excited for the future, and I hope you are too..

Oh well..

I so didn't want to take you out of your bubble, but you give me no choice. I might not be as excited as you are unfortunately.

Can you imagine a world without poverty, without diseases and crime where everyone is happy and there are unlimited things to do? All these could very well be a reality by 2100 or earlier hopefully.

In fact, I can imagine a world without sadness. However, as optimistic as a person I can be towards life, I can't say the same about my vision of the immediate future of mankind.

It could have been the way you just presented. But sadly, by the look of things, by 2100 earth will be an hostile place to live.

We might even become one with the machines and become trans-humans.

It's a wonder why you present this as something positive. Becoming one with the machines would probably mean loosing one part of what makes us alive and beautiful in the first place.

Nano-technology would be readily available and would regenerate any defective cells and eliminate all illness within us. We will literally be immortal, replenishing our aging cells with new ones with the help of nanobots. Look up respected researchers like Aubrey De Grey, who claims that the first immortal might be already living amongst us.

This. Can't. Be. Good.

Immortality would mean the end of one of the greatest purpose of life and that is dying happy and self-fulfilled.

Life is perfect in its essence and death is an inevitable part of it. Why would we want to take away something so natural and crucial to our inner developpment?

Oh yeah, don't tell me, I already know the answer.
Cowardice.

I look forward to technological singularity; the realization of true Artificial Intelligence.

With such advent, I suspect we'll see a number of changes for the betterment of humanity.

There is certainly a mealy mouthed enclave dedicated to an opinion that only the wealthy, powerful, "TPTB", etc will have access to certain technologies, but, considering that near everyone has a cell phone in their pocket that has 1000x the processing power of the entire US Space Program up to the first space shuttle combined, such fears are likely unwarranted.

Sure, "new" technologies will find use with the wealthy first, but, they'll sure enough find homes and use among the commons.
Once upon a time, a personal computer was a wonder of Science Fiction imagining such that the same enclave that talks about only the wealthy having access would have claimed the same. In reality, not so much.

Time, will, of course, tell.

reply to post by icyboy771z

Your optimistic outlook is somewhat atavistic IMHO. It comes down to the fact that 7 Billion people on this planet is simply unsustainable. Our resources are finite and we continue to propagate faster than we die, but that might reset soon. Antibiotic resistant bacteria is here and that means people dying off due to infection will become common-place. Think of all the advances in modern medicine and surgical practices. They are based on dowsing the patient in antibiotics and performing very invasive and protracted surgeries. Or chemotherapy patients, their immune systems are so weakened that antibiotics are prescribed to prevent the patient from developing and dying of an infection while treating their cancer. They have extended the lifespans by decades, just imagine if we couldn't do either of those anymore. Compound that with a diminished access to clean potable water, even here in the "first world", and you can see how grim our prospects are. I would be very surprised if we make it through this century.

klreply to post by icyboy771z


You are going to have a lot of the usual humdrum doleful naysayers coming in loudly here. These kind of people only see the negative. I; myself, am meliorist and realize that whether we flourish as you say will have much to do with how and whether we address problems in a practical way. I will say that all of the glum posturing on here will have little bearing on emergent processes as the seeds of such are often difficult for most to recognize. Thank you a thoughtful thread, Icyboy. I hope the comments that ensue are incisive.


ETA: From another poster:

"This. Can't. Be. Good.

Immortality would mean the end of one of the greatest purpose of life and that is dying happy and self-fulfilled.

Life is perfect in its essence and death is an inevitable part of it. Why would we want to take away something so natural and crucial to our inner development?"

Classic apology for suffering. For every nonsensical metaphysical abstraction on this subject there are COUNTLESS concrete and REAL-LIFE examples of death and the suffering it causes, to the living and the dying. I'll stick with the problem solvers actually addressing this and other causes of suffering.

reply to post by Helious

Human technology has far surpassed human wisdom.

Not sure what you mean by wisdom in this context, but the human computer is still more advanced. According to this video computers would need to be 1000x faster in order to process/map our brains.

mashable.com...

reply to post by St0rD

Immortality would mean the end of one of the greatest purpose of life and that is dying happy and self-fulfilled.

According to you. I think being alive to experience that happiness is where the meaning is found.

Life is perfect in its essence and death is an inevitable part of it. Why would we want to take away something so natural and crucial to our inner developpment?

Okay. Never mind actual immortality.

How about extended life in a youthful healthy state?

reply to post by icyboy771z

We are projected to reach world population peak in 2055 at 8.7 billion people

Up to 11 billion from the current UN projections I am seeing.

AliceBleachWhite

I look forward to technological singularity; the realization of true Artificial Intelligence.

With such advent, I suspect we'll see a number of changes for the betterment of humanity.

You too Alice? I thought I was the only one around these parts

Technology could either be our saviors, or our executioners.

It would be nice living in a world technologically advanced where robotics and computers basically ran everything for us. And all we would really need to do is make sure everything keep running smoothly. We would no longer have to be wage slaves to corrupt corporations who are fixated with profit. We could finally go out and actually live life. But, perhaps that sort of reality would be too utopian and unrealistic.

There would be without a doubt psychos out there creaming too get their hands on such power. And most likely use it to to take over the world. Or at least raise hell for awhile attempting it.

It's pretty hard to say what will happen. I'd like to think we'd finally come to 'paradise' but given our history leading up to this point, it would probably just turn out to be a mirage.

reply to post by icyboy771z


This all sounds great.

Just one thing standing in the way

Government

Ecclesiastes 1

9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Yeah I know, a bit philosophical, but it's what I often think of when I read things like the OP. That's not a dis OP. Just my dark and cynical philosophy when it comes to our future.

reply to post by icyboy771z

Will the 22nd Century be the start of the era of a paradise?

I certainly hope so.

But then, there is the Human Extinction Movement who is a group of humans who wishes to end human life on this planet except themselves.

I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

If you knew anything about computers and myrid of problems they have you would not be so quick to join the Transhumanist movement. I for one do not want my brain or my memories hacked and believe me one minute after a human is uploaded another human will digitally hack or attack that human!

Besides Kurtzweil is selling new age snake oil wrapped up as the technological singularity it is his version of a utopian man-made heaven that will never exist from a completely fictional Christ like savior called A.I. Oh and believe me I am optimistic about the future but this is a pipe dream, let's not forget humans are really great at creating utopias...

reply to post by abeverage


This Ray Kurzweil?

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords, what with their proposed brain chip implants, their military robots and their invasive technology that is exploited to abuse privacy.

People need to wake the heck up -- none of this is happenstance.

adjensen
reply to post by abeverage

 

This Ray Kurzweil?

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords, what with their proposed brain chip implants, their military robots and their invasive technology that is exploited to abuse privacy.

People need to wake the heck up -- none of this is happenstance.

The one and the same! The guy is a genius, but is terrified of dying...

Agreed about the waking up part! The Transhumanist agenda is by far the most frightening aspect of the 21st century!

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