6 signs that reality is catching up with science fiction.

[Gepard]

I agree that dinosaur evolution would likely not have led to humanoid forms. It just doesn't make any sense.

Besides which, we already have a good idea what an evolved therapod dinosaur looks like:

 

[Nerys Myk]

Intelligence as we understand it (our own) wasn't an inevitable occurence in life evolving on Earth, but it did happen. That with life being able to form elsewhere would support the possibility that alien intelligence isn't impossible given the right conditions---it could and might have indeed happened even if it mightn't be an intelligence we could immediately recognize at first.

For all we know someone else is out there facing the same quandary and asking the same questions we are.

Some paleontologists believe that had a meteor not struck earth that the likely result would have been this:

A Sleestak?

 

[RoJoHen]

I agree that dinosaur evolution would likely not have led to humanoid forms. It just doesn't make any sense.

Besides which, we already have a good idea what an evolved therapod dinosaur looks like:

On the flip side, we have no idea how certain creatures would have continued to evolve if they didn't have mass extinction events to contend with.

 

[Gepard]

Well, of course – and birds aren't direct descendants of Troodon either. But they're the only data point we have, really. And they don't look anything like people.

 

[RAMA]

Ive discussed this before on other technology forum threads, but science fiction will only be a "sliding scale" for so long, because there are two things likely to occur:

1) reality and virtual reality/cyberspace/human minds/AI are all likely to be related or synonymous in the future, and such "reality" may no longer be distinguishable to anyone (see Her, Ghost in the Shell, Thirteenth Floor, Matrix, Tron..all of which barely scratch the surface of possibilities). Your scifi will be immersive, and at some point, the reality you can create virtually could also exist physically...first with 3D printing, then with nanotechnology and utility fog. You'll become your own story, your own prediction. There is also the possibility of annihilation..scifi destroying us...

2) Any Singularity event renders prediction past a certain point of development in AI moot. What such advanced minds--immersed with AI--could conceptualize after that is problematic to speculate on. The most common, all-encompassing attempt at prediction is smart matter pervading the universe, in effect quantifying everything. This may have already happened multiple times or we could be the first to get there.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/03/25/science.fiction.kaku/

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

- Antigravity
- Terraforming
- Quantum computers
- Zero point energy
- Copied and downloaded consciousness
- Nanobots
- Nanodocs
- Nano-biology
- Forcefields
- Star travel (as opposed to very limited intrasolar travel)
- Self aware Androids
- Fusion energy
- Human hibernation
- Robot or synthetic (bio-engineered) bodies for transplanted minds.
- Genuinely self-aware A.I.
- Mining asteroids and other solar planets and satellites.
- Extraterrestial life

Those are but a few SF concepts that haven't happened yet.

Many of these are true, though through info-tech and accelerated exponential technology, we can speculate with some certainty that some of these are likely if not a given.

Terraforming is possible, but highly demanding resource wise. We need a full space effort going to even begin such and enterprise. MORE likely is resource mining of asteroids, with two startups already competing to be the first to do so.

Quantum computers already exist, and will be more useful in the next few years.

Mind uploading is being worked on already, its an offshoot of other infotech, and is very possible in the next 20-30 years.

Nanotech is already a multi-billion dollar technology in materials. Assemblers and such will probably be due in 25-30 years.

Forcefields already exist, you have to define what you mean exactly. There are several tanks in the world that use EM fields as stealth cloaks for example.

Star travel: We already have a ship that left the solar system, but I agree, this one is going to take some work.

Fusion power is being worked on by numerous countries both with ITER and DEMO, and some simpler solutions have been offered in universities. DEMO could be producing power in 30-35 years.

Self-aware androids: This is one of the easier predictions based on computing power and software...the general consensus for that is human level intelligence by 2025-2029.

My conclusion however is more important than the fact we don't have some of these scifi "predictions"...some things we predict simply aren't important, practical, or necessary. Flying cars: not practical. FTL drive: as I argued rigorously on the Ancient Alien thread, we do NOT need FTL to explore the universe, starseed projects can work as well and within a short period of relative human, geological, and universal time. Lots of "hardware" based technologies were rendered less relevant due to information technologies, and in a large scale way, an example would be smartphones dematerializing lots of hardware.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204909104577237220008056712

http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/1124/554

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, of course – and birds aren't direct descendants of Troodon either. But they're the only data point we have, really. And they don't look anything like people.

They're thinking the same thing about us...

 

[gturner]

Well, of course – and birds aren't direct descendants of Troodon either. But they're the only data point we have, really. And they don't look anything like people.

They're thinking the same thing about us...

What about the funny little fish-eating guys in the tuxedos?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I agree that dinosaur evolution would likely not have led to humanoid forms. It just doesn't make any sense.

Besides which, we already have a good idea what an evolved therapod dinosaur looks like:

I once wrote a short story about humans encountering an evolved avian race from Earth's distant past, having fled some sort of mass extinction on a generation ship. There was a debate among the birds as to whether or not human beings really constituted intelligent life; eventually their scientists concluded that we did not, primarily because we never evolved wings.

Perhaps the most ‘advanced’ dinosaur known to have been living at the time of the extinction was a small theropod called Troodon. They were small, upright dinosaurs that walked in a bipedal fashion and lived in large groups. Even more compelling was that detailed analysis of their brain structure seems to suggest that they possessed very good vision and even potentially the ability to solve complex problems.

Hell, they invented steam engines and normalized time travel, so I don't see why not.

Am I the only one on this board with kids?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Any Singularity event renders prediction past a certain point of development in AI moot.

It doesn't render it moot. It renders it IMPOSSIBLE.

Which makes the rest of your prediction all the more empty.

 

[RAMA]

Any Singularity event renders prediction past a certain point of development in AI moot.

It doesn't render it moot. It renders it IMPOSSIBLE.

Which makes the rest of your prediction all the more empty.

The predictions--if you note--are almost all before the predicted date of a Technological Singularity. There Have been attempts to predict after that but obviously these are tenuous. A lot of the predictions need to occur before a Singularity.. Energy, computer power/intelligence, etc.

 

[Australis]

Surprised no one's mentioned this yet:

Scientists in the United States say they have taken an important step on a decades-old quest to harness nuclear fusion to generate nearly inexhaustible energy.


For the first time, two nuclear fusion experiments succeeded in producing more energy than was used to trigger the reaction, the journal Nature reports.

The researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source.

So, that's coming too. And... Professor Hurricane!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...urning-point27-in-fusion-energy-quest/5258788