The Potential for Human Evolution

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 50 years
• Smart prosthetics for limbs AND organs
• Genetic ID/elimination of hereditary disease
• Computers AI improve
• Nanotechnology increases

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 50 years
• Questions
• Fusion?
• Food?
• Water?

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 500 years
• Brains/Bodies enhanced (bionics)
• Lifetimes, Adaptability increase

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 500 years
• Questions
• Room to survive?
• Resolve to allow Cyborgs?
• Reasons to explore?

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 5000 years
• What is human?
• Fully artificial 1000 year lifetime
• Able to travel for 1000 years_at_ high speeds
• Able to reach nearby stars

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The Potential for Human Evolution

• 5000 years
• Questions
• What will we find?

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Astronomy Our Lives

• What could learning about the planets and stars
  possibly have in common with my life now??

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What have we learned?

• Facts
• Seven Days/Week, Moonths and Dis-asters
• You most likely arent an Aries (or whatever sign
  you thought you were!)
• Distance ? Seasons!
• Orbits are just controlled, continuous falling!
• The world will not end in 2028 (at least because
  of Asteroid XF11)
• There are thousands of planets orbiting other
  stars

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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• We humans live for an eye-blink of time
  relative to the stars

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What have we learned?
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What have we learned?

• Ideas We humans live for an eye-blink of time
  relative to the stars
• But in that blink of an eye, we can imagine
  infinity

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What have we learned?

• Ideas We humans live for an eye-blink of time
  relative to the stars
• But in that blink of an eye, we can imagine
  infinity, visualize black holes

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What have we learned?

• Ideas We humans live for an eye-blink of time
  relative to the stars
• But in that blink of an eye, we can imagine
  infinity, visualize black holes, and explain how
  the Sun shines for a billion years.

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What have we learned?
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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If the Earth was a grain of cream of wheat.
• The Sun would be an orange 12 steps away

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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If the Earth was a grain of cream of wheat.
• The Sun would be an orange 12 steps away

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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If the Earth was a grain of cream of wheat.
• The Sun would be an orange 12 steps away
• Pluto would be at Hesperian Depot roads

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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If the Earth was a grain of cream of wheat.
• The Sun would be an orange 12 steps away
• Pluto would be at Hesperian Depot roads
• The next nearest star would be 1000 miles away,
  in El Paso Texas

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What have we learned?
Nearest Star
1000
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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If our Milky Way Galaxy
• was the size of the Bay Area.

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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• If the Milky Way Galaxy was the size of the Bay
  Area.
• The Solar System (to Pluto!) is a grain of Cream
  of Wheat
• The nearest stars would still be 25 feet away
• Around Chabot would be 120,000 other grains of
  Cream of Wheat representing other solar systems!

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How big is the universe?
The Milky Way has as many stars as grains of
sand on all Earths beaches
.
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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• Science is not about certainty
• Many hypotheses start out wrong!

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as
quickly as possible, because only in that way can
we find progress. ? Richard P. Feynman
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What have we learned?

• Ideas
• Science is not about certainty
• Many hypotheses start out wrong!
• But
• Science is self-correcting
• Multiple tests
• Independent Experiments by others
• Peer Review

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A sense of who we are

• Culture

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A sense of who we are

• Technology

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A sense of who we are

But, soft! what light through yonder window
breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the
sun. ?  Romeo and Juliet
Doubt thou the stars are fireDoubt that the
sun doth moveDoubt truth to be a liarBut
never doubt I love. ? William
Shakespeare, Hamlet
The Falling Star   by Sara Teasdale I saw a star
slide down the sky, Blinding the north as it
went by, Too burning and too quick to hold, Too
lovely to be bought or sold, Good only to make
wishes on And then forever to be gone.
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Stars Alone in the nightOn a dark hillWith
pines around meSpicy and still,
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And a heaven full of starsOver my head,White
and topazAnd misty red
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Myriads with beatingHearts of fireThat
aeonsCannot vex or tire
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Up the dome of heavenLike a great hill,I watch
them marchingStately and still,
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And I know that IAm honored to beWitness Of
so much majesty.
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• Who will I have beenwhen I am gone?  
• - Rebecca Elson

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Key Questions for YOU
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Key Questions for YOU

• How does science work?
• What do we gain, as humans, by asking questions
  of Nature?
• Is the quest for knowledge worth the costs?

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Key Questions for YOU

• What will you do with what you now know?

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about,
and it doesn't matter. Explore the world.
Nearly everything is really interesting if you
go into it deeply enough. ? Richard P. Feynman