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http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/07/stephen-hawking-the-planet-has-entered-a-new-phase-of-evolution.html
 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
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 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.
Ya we have been trying to map the entire DNA code for years. I remember hearing about these concepts almost 20 years ago. We are getting close supposedly to already being able to manipulate DNA and create "super babies" basically. As far as living on other planets and all the future sounds really fucking lame. Living in space seems like it would suck ass. I would rather stay on this planet and rip big powder lines until I die.
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Boris the Martian > Stephen Hawking.
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I'm with bfactor on this one. How does Stephen Hawking confirming a concept that tons of people have talked about and studied before him blow your mind? I mean, it's great that he's here to give some confirmation to it, but he's farrrrrrrr from being a trail blazer with this one.
I mean...kasilof beat him to the punch amirite
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"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.
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That looks like a sick setup to grind with.
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| 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.
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stephen hawking can finally achieve an erection now that doctors have disabled his pop-up blocker.
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| marinersheep: | |
| 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
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| AbnormalQ: | |
yeah that works...I'll have to dust off my AIM, prolly haven't used that program in years...
Bien. Ship me your AIM handle and I'll ship it to you next time I'm online. I have to go help a friends dad fix his roof. (Fuckin' pain in the ASS, but it's fun, I guess. I didn't know redoing a roof was so much work, but hey, learn something everyday.)
I've also been asked to send this to someone else, too. So, I'll ship it to them and you at the same time, hopefully. It's very good, I think you'll like it. It is him just lecturing in his computerized voice. I don't mind it, but I tried to get a friend fo mine to listen to it and he said he couldn't listen to it. Weird, imo.
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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.
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| kasilof: | |
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.
i seriously doubt that you are real. even just trying to understand that garbage makes my hurt head.
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| 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.
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| moses rob: | |
| 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)
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| Dr.GHouse: | |
| moses rob: | |
| 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
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| moses rob: | |
LOL. thought u were fixing a roof
Leave in about 17 minutes.
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