The Federation in the far future
- Thread starter Voth commando1
- Start date
Scenario 1. We do nothing to change ourselves. In this case, nature will run its course. If we don't get ourselves exterminated somewhere along the way, we'll probably have mutated into something we wouldn't quite call homo sapiens today, by about 1 million years from now. 1 billion years from now there probably wouldn't be anything left we could call 'human' by our standards.
Scenario 2. We keep 'improving' ourselves, and eventually reach some Q-like status. Now what? Are we eternally going to stay that way? Probably not. In A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge (admittedly a very different universe), there are species that 'transcend' into 'powers'- not quite Q-hood, but definitely a form of postsingularity with a degree of intelligence unimaginable to us right now. These 'powers' can still communicate with lower-level lifeforms (such as humans) but they rarely do. Turns out that what is one year for us might be equal to a billion years in their vastly enhanced and speeded up consciousnesses. Most of these 'powers' go completely silent after a few years or so. Nobody knows exactly why -- if they have simply transcended their own level again, or got bored out of their skull after billions of years of subjective godhood experience and ended it, or some third option we don't know of.
In both cases, a humanity existing like it does today (or like it does in the Star Trek universe) is extremely unlikely.
Barring such 'eternal' species like the Q, what is the oldest intelligent spacefaring species that never went extinct or "evolved" in some energy being, anyway? Is it the Voth?
Scenario 2. We keep 'improving' ourselves, and eventually reach some Q-like status. Now what? Are we eternally going to stay that way? Probably not. In A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge (admittedly a very different universe), there are species that 'transcend' into 'powers'- not quite Q-hood, but definitely a form of postsingularity with a degree of intelligence unimaginable to us right now. These 'powers' can still communicate with lower-level lifeforms (such as humans) but they rarely do. Turns out that what is one year for us might be equal to a billion years in their vastly enhanced and speeded up consciousnesses. Most of these 'powers' go completely silent after a few years or so. Nobody knows exactly why -- if they have simply transcended their own level again, or got bored out of their skull after billions of years of subjective godhood experience and ended it, or some third option we don't know of.
In both cases, a humanity existing like it does today (or like it does in the Star Trek universe) is extremely unlikely.
Barring such 'eternal' species like the Q, what is the oldest intelligent spacefaring species that never went extinct or "evolved" in some energy being, anyway? Is it the Voth?
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Aren't all cultures and civilisations predicted to end/fail in some way, sooner or later?
i don't think you get seven seasons from the question 'can we take that sun or might it have intelligent life in a couple of billion years'
Alien archaeologists of a billion years from now might dig up evidence of our existence in the form of Styrofoam cups and plastic bags.
Unless the Voyagers go the way of Pioneer 10 (or 11). Shot up by the Klingons.
My theory: the information density and breadth of experience available *inside* the virtual world they create for themselves becomes such that they no longer care nearly as much about exploring or communicating *outside* than they do for exploring inside - and perhaps they even forget that there IS an outside.
This may actually be the real origin of the universe that we live in, too.
Reminds me of a science fiction short story I read many years ago, in which far future (human) archeologists do exactly that. In that story, they called our era (either as a successor to the Holocene, or as a subdivision of it, don't know) "the Obscene" because of such finds.
There should be evidence of large cities - in terms of underground pipes etc, in 10m or 100m years, but 1,000 million years is an unimaginable length of time even on evolutionary timescales. 10 times the time that dinosaurs were around.
But in 100m years yes, there will be evidence from both nuclear testing and pollution about this new geological age - probably linked with extinction in the same way as the K-T boundary.
But in 100m years yes, there will be evidence from both nuclear testing and pollution about this new geological age - probably linked with extinction in the same way as the K-T boundary.
If you go by "The Big Rip Theory," even the Universe itself will eventually die and all there will be left is an eternal cold nothingness devoid of all life after the last stars have burned out or collapsed upon themselves.
Are we talking realistically or in Star Trek? In Star Trek the trajectory is up and up and up.
Sure, the real world human race probably won't exist in a billon years. But this is Star Trek.
Sure, the real world human race probably won't exist in a billon years. But this is Star Trek.
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Heat death of the universe is inevitable, unless there's a Big Crunch, but not in the next billion years. Plenty of time left in the stellerifous era.
Mankind will have evolved into something unrecognisable in a few million years - if not sooner.
My brain provided this when I was in the thread earlier, but I ignored it because it's depressing as hell. So, um, yeah... thanks.
Can't wait!
I remember something Daniels said when Trip asked him if Earth is still around or something, can't remember the exact quote, but Daniels replies "more or less". I always took that to mean Earth wasn't just our planet, but possibly represented the entire universe, which was now a giant home to Humanity. And I always believed Humanity would become a combination of possibly dozens of races in the Alpha quadrant, just like that time-traveler from 'Future Tense'. So basically the Federation would exist on a galactic level, across all quadrants. That was the impression I always got of where this was going.
I thought the "more or less" came in reaction to *Archer* asking if Daniels was human...
exactly
His reply is "It depends how you define 'Earth'" and I took it to mean Earth wasn;t around in his time, but humanity still was.
But then in "Shockwave" they wimped out and had post-apocalyptic 31st century Earth as an alternate future, and established that New York was Daniels' base of operations.
