In case of extinction, scientists store human genome on a 'memory crystal'

Maybe some nice space aliens will resurrect us

3 Likes

If they are smart, they probably wonā€™t. :rofl:

8 Likes

Unless they have written a book titled ā€˜To Serve Manā€™

5 Likes

I had to google itā€¦ but yes. A similar premise to The Matrix in some ways.

The Simpsonā€™s did an awesome paraody of it:

2 Likes

Any aliens out there most likely did the same :rofl:

ā€œThe Great Filter.ā€

I tend towards the ā€˜Dark Forest Theoryā€™ā€¦ but either way, as a species we are ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– !

1 Like

Itā€™s hard not to have a brighter outlook in light of current events, especially the nuclear rhetoric surrounding the war in Ukraine, potentially a species extinction event. Is it not? Then one thinks of the possibility of totalitarian and theocratic states having access to the same destructive power and itā€™s a wonder that any of us have lived as long as we have.

Iā€™d hoped that weā€™d leave the world in better condition for our children.

2 Likes

If we go extinct would that not make us a lifeform that the Universe would be better off not replicating?

The ā€œscienceā€ part if the act isnā€™t the etching of the genome (although tat worked in getting public attention). The science was the permanence of the method of storage. Cool!

2 Likes

And we are backing into corners nuke-capable societies who, seeing oblivion, will gladly leave annihilation as their parting shot.

2 Likes

For better or for worse, I spent most of my ā€˜workingā€™ life looking at or into the darker recesses of human existence.

That obviously clouds my judgement, but we also had extensive training in recocognising confirmation bias and applying analytical ā€˜rigourā€™.

I stand by my original comment that as a species we are ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– !

2 Likes

Assuming, of course, that other forms of life are better in some wayā€¦? Humanity goes extinctā€¦ Wait until chimpanzees evolve and see how they fare? What Iā€™m getting at is; are there any evidence that other life forms would perform better than humans haveā€¦?
The question doesnā€™t have an answer and for all we know, weā€™re the best the universe ever producedā€¦ Or the worst.
But the premise of preserving our DNA assumes that some other life form finds it and puts it into their xerox and copies up a bunch of humans. Ok, that may indicate that they are a more advanced life form, but are they better life forms, in a universal contextā€¦? Maybe they will use humans as a cheap energy source to fuel their transportation devices? Maybe theyā€™ll use the now super evolved chimps for this purpose as well?

A very philosophical discussion, but a fun one nevertheless.

Have humans made the universe better or worse, by existing in it?

My take on this is that in a universal context, weā€™re not even a grain of sand in the Sahara. A mere couple of thousand years after weā€™re gone, I doubt anyone ever noticed we were even here.

In the end, our planet is just a pale blue dot, in the vastness of spaceā€¦

2 Likes

Iā€™m keen.

My favourite word is probably ā€˜gestaltā€™ - and I donā€™t want to insult the intelligence of anyone here, but the the sum of the parts is greater than the whole - or is it?

if

Do they have a bunch of humans?

1 Like

Good question.
Perhaps they do and they put them on a pale blue dot to growā€¦ :wink:

1 Like

When discussing all things important with my kids, I sometimes need to remind them that considering the vastness of the universe, we are not that damn important. Otherwise they tend to have too high opinion of themselves. Tempered with a sprinkle of positive reinforcement where needed.

3 Likes

Like, youā€™re just a tiny speck of dust! But do try to be the best little speck of dust you can be! :wink:

3 Likes

My unflappable core beliefs are as follows (Iā€™ve held them all my adult life and I have no other than these):

Life on Earth is the only life any Earthling will ever know.

Earth is the only home any Earthling will ever have past one generation.

Religion (or the general human compulsion to believe in a higher power that ā€˜has my backā€™) will eventually kill us all.

7 Likes

I know Dawkins is not so popular these days, but he said recently that we could probably view our DNA more like a virus - something that uses us to get into the future rather than something we should revereā€¦ Iā€™m not sure how much I buy into that, but I certainly think our art and culture and (god forbid) our AI and data systems are probably better representations of what we are than our DNAā€¦

2 Likes

I couldnā€™t agree more. On every single point.

1 Like

Yeah, pretty much.

Look again at that dot. Thatā€™s here. Thatā€™s home. Thatā€™s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ā€œsuperstar,ā€ every ā€œsupreme leader,ā€ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived thereā€“on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home weā€™ve ever known.

ā€” Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Guys like Putin doesnā€™t do it because of religion. Unless he considers himself to be a deityā€¦

Iā€™m gonna go with a meteor. :comet:

3 Likes