Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Stargazer_2098 on September 30, 2002, 09:12:27 am
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Imagine the Earth in a distant future...
The continents has moved;
Mankind is extinct;
And nothing is as it was.
But evolution has continued; and life exists in exotic new forms:
//www.thefutureiswild.com
This show seems interesting: a new kind of science-fiction; not concentrated on technology or the future of mankind; but about the future of planet Earth instead.
Go to the above website for more information.
I have heard they will air "The Future is Wild" on Discovery and Animal Planet somewhere in 2003; I'll be sure to watch. :)
Stargazer.
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I really groove on speculative near future stuff. Throw in 3d graphics, and you've got me as a sure viewer.
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I've already thought a lot about possible futures w/o humans for scifi universes. Found out people couldn't recognize themselves in that kind of thing, so I always kept the idea for later, then later, then ( etc etc ). Guess you need to be better than me to make that kind of thing interesting, I'm looking forward to it :)
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This looks like an interesting premise...
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it won't be a hit though. General viewer isn't the kind to watch this.
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i already came up with a concept for human life in 1,000,000 AD. it's kinda creepy.
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Originally posted by Carl
i already came up with a concept for human life in 1,000,000 AD. it's kinda creepy.
Does it have three legs, two arms, five eyes and inbuilt beam cannons in the shoulder?
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Heh, those guys really like their squids. :D
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Originally posted by Shrike
Heh, those guys really like their squids. :D
Squids have the potential for becoming the next sentient species on this planet; together with the Dolphins and Sharks.
They got a big brain, and they even got arms to handle tools with.
Stargazer.
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Originally posted by Stargazer_2098
Squids have the potential for becoming the next sentient species on this planet; togther with the Dolphins and Sharks.
They got a big brain, and they even got arms to handle tools with.
Stargazer.
And squids and octopi show an incredible facility toward logical reasoning and problem solving seldom seen outside of primates, let alone the whole vertebrates.
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one problem is that sinse octopi live under water, they have to go through there entire technological development without fire, which is impossible.
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Actually, squids are downright stupid. Octopi are the smart ones.
And it is most certainly possible to have sentience without fire. Unless you gauge "sentience" solely by the usage of fire. It was important for humans, because it allowed us to spread into colder climes more easily, and eat more kinds of food. Sea animals wouldn't really have that problem, since the temperature of the ocean doesn't vary so much as it does on land, and they're perfectly adapted to eat what they do eat as it is (humans weren't, because our digestive systems, etc. had to support a whole range of foods, meaning none of them would be done particularly well. Octopi eat fish, simple as that, and one fish is about as good as another). Usage of simple tools would be more important.
However, it is kinda hard to see sentience coming from sea animals. For one thing, it's absolutely unnecessary- life is goodfor all when you're underwater, there's plenty of whatever you need, or there's a depletion and nothing in the world will save you. All you need to do is avoid those who would eat you, and that doesn't really require intelligence so much as (in the octopus's case) one of the best stealth systems in the world, and good senses.
If anything else becomes sentient (and no doubt something will, at some point), it'll be on land, and in fairly harsh conditions. Not too harsh, since then they won't be able to support the extra energy consumption and birth times associated, but bad enough that the animal needs to evolve to make life easier for itself. And both predation and environmental problems have to be present.
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Originally posted by Carl
one problem is that sinse octopi live under water, they have to go through there entire technological development without fire, which is impossible.
They live under water in our time.
It is no secret that we are heading for a lot of Earth-chances; the magnetic field of earth will shift within the next 20 years; mysterious anomalies has been detected in Earths gravity also indicating it to shift in a way we do not understand.
The gulf-stream that gives Europe its heat is begining to turn, a new ice-age is at hand.
What is an ocean in our time, might just become a saravanna in the distant future.
So it is not improbable that Octopi and Dolphins will enherit the earth.
Life will find a way; and indeed; it is finding that way just as we speak.
We have very solid proof for that the Octopi and dolphins are actually evolving.
By the next 5 million years, when mankind is gone, there might be two other sentient species on Earth...
I dont think the idea are to far-fecthed, the problem is, there will not be any man alive to see the new sentinals...
Stargazer.
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Originally posted by Stargazer_2098
What is an ocean in our time, might just become a saravanna in the distant future.
So it is not improbable that Octopi and Dolphins will enherit the earth.
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Or just plain die. Expose a bunch of humans to hard vaccuum or force them under water, they don't evolve to cope. They suffocate (or, in the case of sudden exposure to vaccuum, explode in a cloud of frozen needles of blood). Samewith anything else.
Life will find a way; and indeed; it is finding that way just as we speak.
We have very solid proof for that the Octopi and dolphins are actually evolving.
By the next 5 million years, when mankind is gone, there might be two other sentient species on Earth...
I think it's kind of a fallacy to assume that big brains are the goal of all history, or even that it has a goal. It was a handy thing to have in our case. That's a pretty rare circumstance, and there's no real evidence that it's any less merely an evolved trait to enhance our particular species' survival under our particular circumstances than, say, retractable claws, or camouflage skin.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Or just plain die. Expose a bunch of humans to hard vaccuum or force them under water, they don't evolve to cope. They suffocate (or, in the case of sudden exposure to vaccuum, explode in a cloud of frozen needles of blood). Samewith anything else.
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Yes, but what if the water retreated slowly, becoming more and more poison over time, but not so much that it would kill them; nature would then take care of the rest.
Slowly, the Octopi and Dolphins might just evolve into something that can survive on both land and sea, and slowly, they will begin to evolve even more...
Its the same thing with humans; expose them to zero-G, and their bones emidietly begin to disapate, afetr a few generations, we would have a new human lifeform, perfectly fitted to the new inviroment.
Stargazer.
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Actually, expose humans to zero-G, and all of the children die by about age 8. Grow themselves to death.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Actually, expose humans to zero-G, and all of the children die by about age 8. Grow themselves to death.
In the first generations, yes.
But just think what we could do with genetic manipulations and such...
Stargazer.
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Um, if the FIRST generation dies, there ain't gonna be another.
And for one thing, genetic manipulation is kinda off-topic. We were talking about how things would evolve in completely hostile environments. For another, you wouldn't wanna dick with the code that determines growth.
Genetic modification isn't the answer to everything. Fact, it's the answer to damn little. You could, theoretically, insert the code to give a kid chitinous carapace plating for skin and eight arms, but the advantages of most of what you can do are debatable (except for if people decide to supercharge the musculature at the expense of brain to create menial-worker subhumans or something). After all, you can only modify the code once (slightly before or slightly after conception, before the cell starts replicating), so you can't turn anything on or off properly, and people are already pretty much ideally adapted for the general environment we live in, by millions of years of trial-and-error. Just like everything else.
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(except for if people decide to supercharge the musculature at the expense of brain to create menial-worker subhumans or something). [/B]
you're talking about Neosapiens :nod: (look for Exosquad)
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No, I was talking about theoretical genetic engineering uses. I've never heard of Neosapiens.
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you're all talking ****, you don't know what will happen in 5 billion years :rolleyes:
Cockroaches will rule the earth I say, coz they're the strongest around, they resist nukes, and everything will die from our nukes, so there. Scorpions, too. Lively bastards.
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Originally posted by Stargazer_2098
It is no secret that we are heading for a lot of Earth-chances; the magnetic field of earth will shift within the next 20 years; mysterious anomalies has been detected in Earths gravity also indicating it to shift in a way we do not understand.
The gulf-stream that gives Europe its heat is begining to turn, a new ice-age is at hand.
Um... I'd like to see proof of these allegations.
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Originally posted by Shrike
Um... I'd like to see proof of these allegations.
You mean... you can't see magnetic fields with your own eyes?? :wtf:
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there is actualy evedence for all this, but I can't remember it at the moment,
but the ice age thing is due to the green house effect melting the ice caps, thus deluting the seas, thus screwing up the ocean currents that are baised on salt salt water sinking at the poles or something
look here (http://www.discover.com/sept_02/featice.html)
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Well i think i have found my required reading biology book for this semester as soon as it is published :D