http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog...evolution.html

<h3>Stephen Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution"</h3>
Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the useful information in our DNA, has probably changed by only a few million bits. So the rate of biological evolution in humans, Stephen Hawking points out in his Life in the Universe lecture, is about a bit a year.

"By contrast," Hawking says, "there are about 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing of the order of a hundred billion bits of information. Of course, the great majority of this information is garbage, and no use to any form of life. But, even so, the rate at which useful information can be added is millions, if not billions, higher than with DNA."

This means Hawking says that we have entered a new phase of evolution. "At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information."

But what distinguishes us from our cave man ancestors is the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last ten thousand years, and particularly, Hawking points out, over the last three hundred.

"I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race," Hawking said.

In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, "an external transmission phase," where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. "But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage," Hawking says, "has grown enormously. Some people would use the term, evolution, only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes."

The time scale for evolution, in the external transmission period, has collapsed to about 50 years, or less.

Meanwhile, Hawking observes, our human brains "with which we process this information have evolved only on the Darwinian time scale, of hundreds of thousands of years. This is beginning to cause problems. In the 18th century, there was said to be a man who had read every book written. But nowadays, if you read one book a day, it would take you about 15,000 years to read through the books in a national Library. By which time, many more books would have been written."

But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA. "At first," he continues "these changes will be confined to the repair of genetic defects, like cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy. These are controlled by single genes, and so are fairly easy to identify, and correct. Other qualities, such as intelligence, are probably controlled by a large number of genes. It will be much more difficult to find them, and work out the relations between them. Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression."

If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets. But this will be done, Hawking believes, with intelligent machines based on mechanical and electronic components, rather than macromolecules, which could eventually replace DNA based life, just as DNA may have replaced an earlier form of life.

Casey Kazan

 

Originally Posted by AbnormalQ

self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets. But this will be done, Hawking believes, with intelligent machines based on mechanical and electronic components, rather than macromolecules, which could eventually replace DNA based life, just as DNA may have replaced an earlier form of life.

i've always thought the next step in evolution would be through our minds, i guess i need to take a few steps to reach his level first though.

big hawking fan

I mean, I don't really see what is so new or mindblowing about this concept.

We've known for quite a few years now that we are making advances in the field of DNA modification, and that it is only a matter of time before we are able to change/improve the human being via making alterations to the human DNA. And that's basically all the article is talking about. That we realize that we have a ton of information and technology to work with, but that our brains aren't really any significantly more powerful, in terms of raw computing power, than they were 10,000 years ago. So thus we should try to use our DNA modifying technology, when it arises, to artificially create people with better, more powerful brains than the ones we are currently being limited by.

But I'm pretty sure a lot of people who follow science have been in agreement about this concept for more than a decade.

And as for the synthetic/robotic life stuff, that I think we all know is not a very new concept at all.

 

Originally Posted by bfactor

I mean, I don't really see what is so new or mindblowing about this concept.

We've known for quite a few years now that we are making advances in the field of DNA modification, and that it is only a matter of time before we are able to change/improve the human being via making alterations to the human DNA. And that's basically all the article is talking about. That we realize that we have a ton of information and technology to work with, but that our brains aren't really any significantly more powerful, in terms of raw computing power, than they were 10,000 years ago. So thus we should try to use our DNA modifying technology, when it arises, to artificially create people with better, more powerful brains than the ones we are currently being limited by.

But I'm pretty sure a lot of people who follow science have been in agreement about this concept for more than a decade.

And as for the synthetic/robotic life stuff, that I think we all know is not a very new concept at all.

exactly i thought that whole article was pretty much common knowledge of what we have in store for us in the future...

 

Originally Posted by AbnormalQ

 

Originally Posted by Dr.GHouse

I have a lecture series given by him in Cambridge if you'd like it.

You've got my email still yeah?

E-Mail will only let me send files no bigger then 10 MB. It'd have to be done via direct file transfer. The only way I know how to do that is on AIM/Trillian. I can PM you my AIM handle and I can send it to you when I have decent signal. Sound okay?

At the heart of it, I think all that is really going on here is, Stephen Hawking looked at something that zillions of people have been talking about for the past decade or two, and was like "Yeah, that looks about right to me." So now that a super smart guy looked into it carefully, and concluded in agreement, it's cool, cuz that means it's probably even more likely than ever before that that is really what's going to happen, if even HE agrees with it. That said though, I still don't consider this to be anything shocking or new. S.H. has come up with some new and shocking ideas before, but this isn't one of them.

 

Originally Posted by bfactor

At the heart of it, I think all that is really going on here is, Stephen Hawking looked at something that zillions of people have been talking about for the past decade or two, and was like "Yeah, that looks about right to me." So now that a super smart guy looked into it carefully, and concluded in agreement, it's cool, cuz that means it's probably even more likely than ever before that that is really what's going to happen, if even HE agrees with it. That said though, I still don't consider this to be anything shocking or new. S.H. has come up with some new and shocking ideas before, but this isn't one of them.

"There is nothing new under the sun." It wasn't posted because it was the announcement of the second coming of E=MC^2. After all, arguments along this vane started almost three hundred years ago with Berkeley's "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous." So, surely this isn't "new," but it is interesting. It was posted because it had a lot of good quotes about the development of evolutionary thought by one of the people at the forefront and apex of human ideas within the world today.

Boris the Martian > Stephen Hawking.

"Some people would use the term, evolution, only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally."

He needs to use a different term, people already are confused and ignorant about evolution (most biologist I have met are confused/ignorant about it, laypeople are absolutely clueless) and this is not evolution.

 

Originally Posted by kellykip

That looks like a sick setup to grind with.

kudos for getting me to lol at a poker joke in OT. He needs another monitor tho.

 

Originally Posted by marinersheep

 

Originally Posted by kellykip

That looks like a sick setup to grind with.

kudos for getting me to lol at a poker joke in OT. He needs another monitor tho.

super sick set up

We really have not hit this phase yet. As most babies are still made by young people fffffffing. Aggression and intelligence does not matter. You are either alive or you are not.

We have done DNA modifications to food. Thus, plants might be evolving via this method.

First all men are not important, and what could happen is a group of lesbos could decide to make a super race. As you will still need the women to provide the kitchen of birth. Women would be running experiments with their eggs. Maybe not even their eggs. The humanoid that this egg makes must still be able to thrive and reproduce. Thus, the most likely offspring would grow to be genetic science geniuses. It would be reading, writing, arithmatic, and genetic science.

The ideal mother would be someone like octomom, producing like 15 children experiments a lifetime. The babies would all be girls. These children would have to know warfare or space travel. As the population would grow geometrically maybe a 10 year doubling time. If you stay on earth, soon resources would be used and warfare would result.

 

Originally Posted by Dr.GHouse

I have a lecture series given by him in Cambridge if you'd like it.

no surprise NurseGhouse is first here. Can i just send abnormalQ the stephen hawkins lecture you sent me? lol. Jk. i will listen too it when im drunk.

 

Originally Posted by Dr.GHouse

 

Originally Posted by moses rob

 

Originally Posted by Dr.GHouse

I have a lecture series given by him in Cambridge if you'd like it.

no surprise NurseGhouse is first here. Can i just send abnormalQ the stephen hawkins lecture you sent me? lol. Jk. i will listen too it when im drunk.

I only sent you part of it, nub. The lecture series I have is just about 4 hours long. I think you got 40-50 minutes.

And I'm only the nurse when LeftyC is over. (We like role reversal, ldo)

LOL. thought u were fixing a roof