halfknot

Don't get me wrong, I think that this is a great thing, but by 2018 I'm guessing that artificial intelligence and robotics will have leapt a leap or a bound and we won't really need to send humans up. It's debatable whether we even do now. I know it's not about need, but I think the Glory aspect shouldn't overshadow the Science and Progress aspects, and if we can do with intelligent machinery what can be done with humans for less cost and less risk, then why not just wait 'til it's time to plant a flag on Mars to send up some fleshy folk.

And then let the robots do the rest.

You be selfish with your ego, I'll be selfish with the sustainability and progress of mankind... thinking kind... of womb or factory. It is a somewhat frightening prospect, but I argue inevitable. There is a mortality to man, and it's always been that the only thing that survives beyond a single life is the artist's creation. Pyramids, statues, paintings, philosophies, bridges, symphonies... and our metal children. It is worth a struggle, as is the fight against death through knowledge and medicine, but the trudging on of technology is no more avoidable than the survival of the fittest. If the prospect of machines which can surpass the abilities of man is accepted, and I don't think it can be reasonably disputed if you stretch the timetable out long enough (assuming the Earth stays reasonably functional), then it is possible to find a way to cherish the idea itself despite the frightening qualities of it, in a similar way to an honest acceptance of death and all its implications.

I think somewhere within that lies a merging of the possibilities. Maybe by 2098 the difference will be so blurred between humans, biological and medical enhancements, computers, cyborgs, and robots that we won't really know what part of us is the actual "I" anymore.

But still, I would like to follow her shapely round caboose up the ladder and scrape out some moon milk for us to share amidst the twillight, mused old Qwfwq.