A direction to Evolution?

[chaz wyman]

Okay chaz. Thank you for that flippant, 3-line dismissal written in haste.

Would anyone else like to chime in here, and dismantle the singularity with a post containing a little more eloquence?

Thanks, glad to be of help.

[Kuznetzova]

Closely aligned with the Singularity is something called "Transhumanism".
Transhumanism contains a viable assertion that biological life is simply a transient stage on cosmic timescales.

Before replying to this post with another flippant dismissal, first watch this entire video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SWvDHvWXok

[chaz wyman]

Closely aligned with the Singularity is something called "Transhumanism".
Transhumanism contains a viable assertion that biological life is simply a transient stage on cosmic timescales.

Before replying to this post with another flippant dismissal, first watch this entire video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SWvDHvWXok

This is not a flippant dismissal. Please don't flippantly dismiss this reply.

1) The video is pedestrian and unsophisticated. We've heard it all before.
2) There were far too many, 'maybes', and 'we could be..." to be taken as anything more than a nice piece of poetic speculation.
3) The video does not really deal with Transhumanism. It is a dreamy speculation on progress and the unknown. But does not really even being to deal with the assumptions of TH+
4) There is nothing wrong with the idea that we will develop as humans to a new state. The problem is at what cost. 90% of the population is still struggling to get to the village whilst we are contemplating going to Mars, another desert

I do not see the progress of humanity as seeking ET, or visiting desert worlds. I am more in favour of returning the deserts we have made in the last 10K years to their former fertility, and even bringing back some of the wildlife we have destroyed. And in giving dignity to the millions of people that live wretched lives. That would be progress indeed.

The other thing that I find naive about "h+" is exhibited in your phrase " biological life is simply a transient stage on cosmic timescales.", and elsewhere, as if the future is already written and we are unavoidably on the path to transcend our human bodies - Nah!
For one thing, we are human because we are corporeal entities, and although we are growing in our understanding of genetics and evolution, and we will no doubt learn to engineer improvements and avoid genetic diseases and so on, I do not think that the path has to lie in disembodied minds, for a host of reasons not least because I do not even think it is possible. And think it highly likely that we will be planet-bound and will just have to learn to live here without destroying what we have.

I studied science as a young adult, and am a life-long reader of sci-fi. I think it would be great if half of the stuff I'd thought about and read about inter-stellar exploration were to come true, but the more I learn about physics the less likely I think all this will be possible or desirable.