comos - a space time odyssy

[Darryl_V]

Anybody watching it. It's pretty good.

The world address thing was cool. I never realized there is virtually an infinite number of galaxies, suns, planets. Freaky to think but there has to be life and probably intelligent life on other planets.  Only problem is they are probably so different from us in unimaginable ways and they are too far away that man will never possess the ability to travel there.

What do you think man is capable of? Star trek type shit? Will we survive to evolve more? As a species how long will we survive as a species? Oh we will probably destroy our planet and thus ourselves at some point.

 

[Duke]

i missed it but its on sundays at 9, gunna get caught up on it. i always liked watching the host, hes really smart, and hes good at dumbing down astrophysics for us laymen

 

[jroovers]

I've only seen a bit of it, but it looks great.  There have been a lot of great shows relating to astronomy and space on Oasis on their three month free preview, including cosmic vistas.

In terms of life on other planets, I think the Kepler space telescope launched 5 years ago is just started to provide data they have had a chance to analyze.  It has already discovered something like a 1000 new planets and exoplanets. Some data released from Nasa regarding Kepler suggests there are potentially 11 billion planets in "habitable" zones in the milky way (i.e. they are about the same size as earth and orbit a star about the same distance the earth orbits our sun).  The milky way is only one galaxy - when you consider that the universe is not finite or is expanding, and that there are countless other galaxies and solar systems out there, hard to believe that earth like conditions don't exist elsewhere on the balance of probabilities. 

 

[Poseidon]

Will we survive to evolve more? As a species how long will we survive as a species? Oh we will probably destroy our planet and thus ourselves at some point.

i read something awhile back that claimed that early humans had a near perfect gene pool, and that as time goes on the genes become more mutated and weak and corrupt, resulting in more disease, sickness and disability. and that if something isnt done like gene selective 'breeding' (lol   ) then the gene pool will continue to weaken and eventually, in theory, will wipe out a large portion, if not ALL of man kind.....

not saying i believe that but it definitely had merit and made some amount of sense to me when i read it lol
just thought i would throw that out there

 

[Poseidon]

I've only seen a bit of it, but it looks great.  There have been a lot of great shows relating to astronomy and space on Oasis on their three month free preview, including cosmic vistas.

In terms of life on other planets, I think the Kepler space telescope launched 5 years ago is just started to provide data they have had a chance to analyze.  It has already discovered something like a 1000 new planets and exoplanets. Some data released from Nasa regarding Kepler suggests there are potentially 11 billion planets in \"habitable\" zones in the milky way (i.e. they are about the same size as earth and orbit a star about the same distance the earth orbits our sun).  The milky way is only one galaxy - when you consider that the universe is not finite or is expanding, and that there are countless other galaxies and solar systems out there, hard to believe that earth like conditions don't exist elsewhere on the balance of probabilities. 

+1, very logical thinking would dictate that there is a high probability that there is definitely life out there somewhere

 

[Big_Als_London]

I always thought there was a planet just like earth with other human like beings that was sort of mirrored to us. 1 could say that if there was a god he would want that perfect subjects, and therefore actually has quite a lot of different earth like planets that god gets to play with.

I've only seen a bit of it, but it looks great.  There have been a lot of great shows relating to astronomy and space on Oasis on their three month free preview, including cosmic vistas.

In terms of life on other planets, I think the Kepler space telescope launched 5 years ago is just started to provide data they have had a chance to analyze.  It has already discovered something like a 1000 new planets and exoplanets. Some data released from Nasa regarding Kepler suggests there are potentially 11 billion planets in \"habitable\" zones in the milky way (i.e. they are about the same size as earth and orbit a star about the same distance the earth orbits our sun).  The milky way is only one galaxy - when you consider that the universe is not finite or is expanding, and that there are countless other galaxies and solar systems out there, hard to believe that earth like conditions don't exist elsewhere on the balance of probabilities.

 

[KBennett]

[quote author=Darryl_V link=topic=8260.msg87708#msg87708 date=1396061692]
Will we survive to evolve more? As a species how long will we survive as a species? Oh we will probably destroy our planet and thus ourselves at some point.

i read something awhile back that claimed that early humans had a near perfect gene pool, and that as time goes on the genes become more mutated and weak and corrupt, resulting in more disease, sickness and disability. and that if something isnt done like gene selective 'breeding' (lol   ) then the gene pool will continue to weaken and eventually, in theory, will wipe out a large portion, if not ALL of man kind.....

not saying i believe that but it definitely had merit and made some amount of sense to me when i read it lol
just thought i would throw that out there

[/quote]

Ever seen the movie Idiocracy?  It's cheesy, but I believe in the principal - to put it bluntly, only stupid people are breeding.  I think people have stopped evolving for the better.  There is no selective pressure to be faster, smarter, healthier etc.  In a thousand years, we'll all have very poor eyesight, lower IQs and severe allergies.  If we want to improve, we have to take our evolution in our own hands, but that leads to lots of ethical discussions.

 

[Salty Cracker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql9nEAPMqBs

 

[TORX]

And we will all eat soylent green

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk

 

[Darryl_V]

[quote author=Poseidon link=topic=8260.msg87719#msg87719 date=1396098745]
[quote author=Darryl_V link=topic=8260.msg87708#msg87708 date=1396061692]
Will we survive to evolve more? As a species how long will we survive as a species? Oh we will probably destroy our planet and thus ourselves at some point.

i read something awhile back that claimed that early humans had a near perfect gene pool, and that as time goes on the genes become more mutated and weak and corrupt, resulting in more disease, sickness and disability. and that if something isnt done like gene selective 'breeding' (lol   ) then the gene pool will continue to weaken and eventually, in theory, will wipe out a large portion, if not ALL of man kind.....

not saying i believe that but it definitely had merit and made some amount of sense to me when i read it lol
just thought i would throw that out there

[/quote]

Ever seen the movie Idiocracy?  It's cheesy, but I believe in the principal - to put it bluntly, only stupid people are breeding.  I think people have stopped evolving for the better.  There is no selective pressure to be faster, smarter, healthier etc.  In a thousand years, we'll all have very poor eyesight, lower IQs and severe allergies.  If we want to improve, we have to take our evolution in our own hands, but that leads to lots of ethical discussions.
[/quote]I did some research on this and you've been given some skewed version of what is actually happening.  First IQ has actually been on the rise in the USA consistently since they started testing and recording.  30 points since 1900.  https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx

I think what they did was talk about global IQ and how people in the more educated, developed world, have less children vs. people in the 3rd/developing world.  So if we think that people in the well educated countries are not even producing enough off spring to replace them and the uneducated populous of the developing world is popping out babies like crazy we come to the conclusion that the world will inevitability become less intelligent.  But this doesn't account for the fact that as the developing world "develops" they will also get better education and more intelligent.

 

[Salty Cracker]

I don't know as if IQ equates directly to level of education. 

 

[Darryl_V]

Your right salty, I shouldnt have assumed it was that simple.  Although everything I read says education does play a role in how well someone can do on an IQ test.  But there are many other factors too.  A lot of environmental factors, like stable living environments, that I that will hopefully improve as the developing world, develops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_and_intelligence

Either case I doubt the world is going to get less intelligent.

 

[jroovers]

Can't wait till Thales, the reef keeping philoshopher, catches wind of this thread lol

 

[KBennett]

[quote author=KBennett link=topic=8260.msg87723#msg87723 date=1396101039]
[quote author=Poseidon link=topic=8260.msg87719#msg87719 date=1396098745]
[quote author=Darryl_V link=topic=8260.msg87708#msg87708 date=1396061692]
Will we survive to evolve more? As a species how long will we survive as a species? Oh we will probably destroy our planet and thus ourselves at some point.

i read something awhile back that claimed that early humans had a near perfect gene pool, and that as time goes on the genes become more mutated and weak and corrupt, resulting in more disease, sickness and disability. and that if something isnt done like gene selective 'breeding' (lol   ) then the gene pool will continue to weaken and eventually, in theory, will wipe out a large portion, if not ALL of man kind.....

not saying i believe that but it definitely had merit and made some amount of sense to me when i read it lol
just thought i would throw that out there

[/quote]

Ever seen the movie Idiocracy?  It's cheesy, but I believe in the principal - to put it bluntly, only stupid people are breeding.  I think people have stopped evolving for the better.  There is no selective pressure to be faster, smarter, healthier etc.  In a thousand years, we'll all have very poor eyesight, lower IQs and severe allergies.  If we want to improve, we have to take our evolution in our own hands, but that leads to lots of ethical discussions.
[/quote]I did some research on this and you've been given some skewed version of what is actually happening.  First IQ has actually been on the rise in the USA consistently since they started testing and recording.  30 points since 1900.  https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx

I think what they did was talk about global IQ and how people in the more educated, developed world, have less children vs. people in the 3rd/developing world.  So if we think that people in the well educated countries are not even producing enough off spring to replace them and the uneducated populous of the developing world is popping out babies like crazy we come to the conclusion that the world will inevitability become less intelligent.  But this doesn't account for the fact that as the developing world "develops" they will also get better education and more intelligent.
[/quote]

I was strictly speaking of developed countries.  Smart people tend to wait longer to have children and factor in things such as the economy in their decisions to have children,verses johnny the football jock who fathers 3 kids before highschool is over.

I think if you take kids 100 Years from now and give them the same education as those from 1900, the older generation will prove to be smarter. I believe in evolution, because you can see it happening, and there is no longer a selective pressure for humans to be smarter than previous generations.

 

[AdamS]

to put it bluntly, only stupid people are breeding.

Hey, I have 3 kids but I aren't stupid!

My opinion on education is 2 fold,
1. Anyone who educates themselves is exercising their brain and should have a higher IQ because of it. If you don't exercise your brain, it gets dumb.
2. Education is very subjective. If you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree...

What is an interesting about human intelligence is how specialized we are becoming. Almost nobody knows how to take care of all their own needs. I don't know much about growing my own food, building my own house, making my own clothes, or finding clean water. Yet somehow, I seem to do alright...if you look at many people in 3rd world countries, many of them actually are self sufficient.

 

[KBennett]

[quote author=KBennett link=topic=8260.msg87723#msg87723 date=1396101039]
to put it bluntly, only stupid people are breeding.

Hey, I have 3 kids but I aren't stupid!

My opinion on education is 2 fold,
1. Anyone who educates themselves is exercising their brain and should have a higher IQ because of it. If you don't exercise your brain, it gets dumb.
2. Education is very subjective. If you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree...

What is an interesting about human intelligence is how specialized we are becoming. Almost nobody knows how to take care of all their own needs. I don't know much about growing my own food, building my own house, making my own clothes, or finding clean water. Yet somehow, I seem to do alright...if you look at many people in 3rd world countries, many of them actually are self sufficient.
[/quote]

Sorry, I shouldn't have said ONLY - that was a quote from a Harvey Danger song.  I certainly don't mean to offend anyone, and I am talking about generalities  over hundreds of generations.  In a general fertility sense, our society is no longer one in which the more intelligent children have a better chance of raising more offspring than those who are genetically predisposed toward higher intelligence.  Our scientists should be the rock stars who have all the illegitimate children as they travel the world giving lectures.
Lets look at it from the health side.  I have really poor eyesight.  Naturally I wouldn't have survived long enough to pass my poor genes on, but now I have a pretty good chance of that.  After enough generations, most people won't have 20/20.  Does that matter?  probably not because we can fix that.

 

[AdamS]

I was just kidding, hence the poor english.

If we bred everyone to be 'smart' like scientists and engineers, doctors , etc. who would do the manual labour and the real hands on jobs?  Each job is a cog in the wheel of humanity.

 

[KBennett]

I suggest reading Brave New World by Aldus Huxley to answer that one....
Anyways, I feel bad for steering this thread onto a tangent.
Cosmos is an awesome show. 

 

[AdInfinitum]

Evolution has only one driving force, what is best able to reproduce.  Any other perceived direction or qualitative function is a misconception or selective interpretation of the type so common amongst the eugenics crowd.

We lack any actual capacity to "destroy the planet".  The best we could do is wipe ourselves out and render it uninhabitable for human life for a tick of the geological clock.  We are just newbs here, the Dinosaurs hung around for a couple hundred million years before they snuffed it and somehow people view them as evolutionary losers just because they eventually were replaced.

Measurement of IQ is a tricky subject and the core goal of the science is to separate measurement of mental acuity from measurement of education.  At best it remains most relevant as a comparative figure within any given socio-economic demographic.  However notwithstanding the ability to skew results by practicing any particular type of test, education doesn't affect your IQ significantly.  The Harvard grad still measures the same 130 that he did in grade 3 or 4 when he was tested and your waiter still measures at 160 just like the day he got bored of a school system built for and run by 100's and dropped out of grade 11.  Assuming no significant losses of brain tissue to recreational substance abuse....

 

[Marz]

Assuming no significant losses of brain tissue to recreational substance abuse....

+1