Should we go to Mars? A Second-best Shot at Species Immortality.
-
Upload
jim-morris -
Category
Technology
-
view
62 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Should we go to Mars? A Second-best Shot at Species Immortality.
Jim Morris
7/2/12
Should we to go to Mars?
Maybe a new species we create will
dominate the Universe!
How do we do that?
Evolution• Darwin explained evolution. (1858)
• Mendel explained genes. (1865)
• Watson and Crick explained DNA.(1953)
• Hamilton explained gene’s power over creatures. (1964)
• Dawkins explained memes.(1976)
Tall Bald Brown Hair Black Hair Altruistic ConservativeSmith ✔ ✔ ✔Bender ✔ ✔ ✔Root ✔ ✔ ✔Heuck ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Simpson ✔Hershey ✔ ✔ ✔Masich ✔ ✔Sheehan ✔ ✔ ✔Bernard ✔ ✔ ✔Edwards ✔Broff ✔ ✔ ✔Hill ✔ ✔Posvar ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Becker ✔ ✔ ✔Morris ✔ ✔Barensfeld ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Carter ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Schoyer ✔ ✔
Genes MemesRichardDawkins
How are memes stored?
Memes are more important than genes.
Memes are exploding.
Ray Kurzweil
Exponential processes usually stop and become S-curves.
The dominant force of the Universe is Intelligence.
It is carried forward by all species in a kind of relay race.
Humans appear to be carrying the baton, at least for the Solar System, at least for now.
David Deutsch
The New Bigamy
Thesis
BCPL Compiler
Evolution According to …
Hans Moravec Ray Kurzweil
David Deutsch
Evolution in the News• Self-Reproducing Robots Set to Test Boundaries of Space—SpaceDaily,
5/11/2005
• How the iPod explains Globalization—New York Times, 6/30/2011
• Is This the End of Market Democracy?—New York Times, 2/11/2012
• Is Google Making Us Stupid?—The Atlantic, 8/1/2008
• Diagnoses of Autism on the Rise, Report Says—New York Times, 3/29/2012
• College Tuition is out of Control—Washington Post, 10/11/2011
• Rich Mom, Poor Dad, Women Become Breadwinners—NPR, 3/20/2012
• What Structural Unemployment Looks Like—New York Times, 9/26/2010
• America’s big wealth gap, is it good, bad, or irrelevant?—The Christian Science Monitor, 2/14/2012
• Why Ayn Rand is Hot Again—Reason, 10/10/2009
The End
Reconsider our place in the Universe.
The definition of man's uniqueness has always formed the kernel of his cosmological and ethical systems. With Copernicus and Galileo, he ceased to be the species located at the center of the universe, attended by sun and stars. With Darwin, he ceased to be the species created and specially endowed by God with soul and reason. With Freud, he ceased to be the species whose behavior was—potentially—governable by rational mind. As we begin to produce mechanisms that think and learn, he has ceased to be the species uniquely capable of complex, intelligent manipulation of his environment.
I am confident that man will, as he has in the past, find a new way of describing his place in the universe—a way that will satisfy his needs for dignity and for purpose. But it will be a way as different from the present one as was the Copernican from the Ptolemaic.
Herbert Simon
David Deutsch
Quantum Physicist
Intelligence is the
dominant force of the universe.
Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary Biologist
Memes are mental
genes and subject to evolution.
Ray Kurzweil
Inventor
An interstellar computer
will dominate Earth by
2050
Hans Moravec
Robot Scientist
Robots will be
descendants of
humans.
William Hamilton
Evolutionary Biologist
Genes drive behavior
that replicates
themselves.
Jared Diamond
Physiologist
Memes are more
powerful than genes.
Andy Clark
Psychologist
Intelligence is a property of ecosystems, not individual
brains.
Karl Popper Philosopher
Knowledge creation is
evolutionary.
Alan TuringMathematician
There are universal
computers that can simulate any
computer.
Alonzo Church
Mathematician
Gordon MooreIntel
Founder
Summary
• The egg (gene) is more important then the chicken.
• The meme is more important than the gene.• Thinking occurs in ecosystems.• Computer networks are the preferred ecosystem.• Intelligence is the most important thing.• It persists and grows.• We are currently carriers.