Post by gaiaguerrilla on Feb 12, 2008 13:35:14 GMT -5
If you do not have so much time to read this entire post, it can suffice that you read the overview at the end.
I'm hoping to make a series of posts which encourage the design of a sustainable habitat. The term "sustainable habitat" might make one think of a duck pond or a plain of buffalo herds for a natural habitat. But I mean in much more universal terms. I mean basically a region in any space for a system of life to coexist quite independantly and within our ideals.
I'm not particularly educated on the matter, but I read up on a lot of the very recent and amazing (albeit, disturbing) discoveries. This post is to encourage brainstorming on hw those discoveries can mesh to create an entirely new sustainable habitat.
The first thing we think of when we explore space, underwater, consider new territories- we ask "how do we put a human being there?" Put a man on the moon, humans on Mars, humans in space . . .
Perhaps it's a little pesumptuous of us to think that human beings are really the ones to do this. Is it the human body that we really want to project out there into the universe? Or is it really the concsious psyche that we want to propagate? A form of life that carries on our values and our joys?
I'm willing to face the prospect that human beings are not really a creature of universal propagation. We were monkeys, and we learned many things. But when you get down to it, we remain monkeys by nature. To consider things like space travel, underwater civilizations, communications-based life forms . . . we're not it. We're just a good precursor. We can adapt so far as intelligent monkeys, and the next life form to take on the much more ambitious frontiers can be designed by us, instilled with our ethical values and encouraged to reason beyond our limited instincts.
Let me make a more concrete example.
I want to paint a picture of the things we can do and the kind of habitat we could theoretically create because of it. Please bare with me as I might sound a little Startrekky or even freakish. If you feel a little on edge from the strangeness of it, please jump to my ethical considerations at the end of the post.
Psyche-
Quantum Computation has been proven possible. It's a matter of time before a computer can demonstrate its ability to appear just as intuitive and contemplative as a human being, to be vastly more calculating, and (whom are we to say otherwise?) have a soul.
Genetics-
Nanotechnology can be adapted to nature's already incredible technologies of cellular genetics. It's quite feasable that with time we will perfect a union between the tiny silicone nanites and genetically engineered cells. "Cyborgs" at the cellular level. It means that we can eventually create beings more efficient by nature than our common physical stuff of skin and bones. Much about ligaments remain the same- nature is a genious roboticist. But the . . . stuff . . . of flesh can still be improved upon. A symbiosis can be created between mass-produced silicone nanites and engineered carbon cells.
Infrastructure-
With the use of water, chemical elements, and cells to convert that matter, we can virtually build a wall of regenerative material that produces all the things that today we produce through our farms and crops. We can eventually create a skin that produces all the kinds of natural raw materials you can imagine just by requesting it via manipulation of the system of organelles. Structures made virtually of bone studs and joists (as opposed to wood) becomes easily possible. The advantages of bone and titaium can be unionized structurally.
Overall-
What I am imagining in the distant future (a millennium, perhaps) is an asteroid that is entirely designed inside out, which perhaps orbits the sun or as another satellite that orbits the earth. That asteroid is an ecosystem in itself- with very sentient beings throughout it. It is the brainchild of earthlings. And inside it exists life just as rich and diverse as the surface of Earth. But it is not an ecosystem based on exctinction and natural selection- where efficient organisms are found by the dieing off by starvation and predation. It has no confused monkey-society riddled with atrocious crime and war. It continually works to further design itself, and its life forms transform by collaboration more than competition. It would indeed have its problems. But it would be our ultimate achievement in our pursuit for something better.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In many places this sounds like science fiction. But would we really have believe it possible, had we heard of some of our technologies a century ago? I think this reality is very possible, but nowhere near fleshed out.
Much of the things I mention could easily be feared much the way we've feared the concepts of human cloning, transgenics, harvesting stem cells from fetuses. We've entered an age in which the stuff of life is a virtual tool, and we are afraid that we may not have a right to simply tamper with it out of creativity. Doctors conducting such strange experiments generally justify them in the name of saving lives and ecosystems. But what if much of these things were justified in the name of creating new lives, new ecosystems. Are we sometimes just as cruel to banish life from its conception as we are to destroy it after conception?
OVERVIEW
I am essentially saying that it will eventually be possible for us to design a planet or moon which teems with life from the inside out. It would be the brainchild of our collective knowledge, the successor of the human race. Do you think it's possible? How? Do you think it's ethical? Why?
I'm hoping to make a series of posts which encourage the design of a sustainable habitat. The term "sustainable habitat" might make one think of a duck pond or a plain of buffalo herds for a natural habitat. But I mean in much more universal terms. I mean basically a region in any space for a system of life to coexist quite independantly and within our ideals.
I'm not particularly educated on the matter, but I read up on a lot of the very recent and amazing (albeit, disturbing) discoveries. This post is to encourage brainstorming on hw those discoveries can mesh to create an entirely new sustainable habitat.
The first thing we think of when we explore space, underwater, consider new territories- we ask "how do we put a human being there?" Put a man on the moon, humans on Mars, humans in space . . .
Perhaps it's a little pesumptuous of us to think that human beings are really the ones to do this. Is it the human body that we really want to project out there into the universe? Or is it really the concsious psyche that we want to propagate? A form of life that carries on our values and our joys?
I'm willing to face the prospect that human beings are not really a creature of universal propagation. We were monkeys, and we learned many things. But when you get down to it, we remain monkeys by nature. To consider things like space travel, underwater civilizations, communications-based life forms . . . we're not it. We're just a good precursor. We can adapt so far as intelligent monkeys, and the next life form to take on the much more ambitious frontiers can be designed by us, instilled with our ethical values and encouraged to reason beyond our limited instincts.
Let me make a more concrete example.
I want to paint a picture of the things we can do and the kind of habitat we could theoretically create because of it. Please bare with me as I might sound a little Startrekky or even freakish. If you feel a little on edge from the strangeness of it, please jump to my ethical considerations at the end of the post.
Psyche-
Quantum Computation has been proven possible. It's a matter of time before a computer can demonstrate its ability to appear just as intuitive and contemplative as a human being, to be vastly more calculating, and (whom are we to say otherwise?) have a soul.
Genetics-
Nanotechnology can be adapted to nature's already incredible technologies of cellular genetics. It's quite feasable that with time we will perfect a union between the tiny silicone nanites and genetically engineered cells. "Cyborgs" at the cellular level. It means that we can eventually create beings more efficient by nature than our common physical stuff of skin and bones. Much about ligaments remain the same- nature is a genious roboticist. But the . . . stuff . . . of flesh can still be improved upon. A symbiosis can be created between mass-produced silicone nanites and engineered carbon cells.
Infrastructure-
With the use of water, chemical elements, and cells to convert that matter, we can virtually build a wall of regenerative material that produces all the things that today we produce through our farms and crops. We can eventually create a skin that produces all the kinds of natural raw materials you can imagine just by requesting it via manipulation of the system of organelles. Structures made virtually of bone studs and joists (as opposed to wood) becomes easily possible. The advantages of bone and titaium can be unionized structurally.
Overall-
What I am imagining in the distant future (a millennium, perhaps) is an asteroid that is entirely designed inside out, which perhaps orbits the sun or as another satellite that orbits the earth. That asteroid is an ecosystem in itself- with very sentient beings throughout it. It is the brainchild of earthlings. And inside it exists life just as rich and diverse as the surface of Earth. But it is not an ecosystem based on exctinction and natural selection- where efficient organisms are found by the dieing off by starvation and predation. It has no confused monkey-society riddled with atrocious crime and war. It continually works to further design itself, and its life forms transform by collaboration more than competition. It would indeed have its problems. But it would be our ultimate achievement in our pursuit for something better.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In many places this sounds like science fiction. But would we really have believe it possible, had we heard of some of our technologies a century ago? I think this reality is very possible, but nowhere near fleshed out.
Much of the things I mention could easily be feared much the way we've feared the concepts of human cloning, transgenics, harvesting stem cells from fetuses. We've entered an age in which the stuff of life is a virtual tool, and we are afraid that we may not have a right to simply tamper with it out of creativity. Doctors conducting such strange experiments generally justify them in the name of saving lives and ecosystems. But what if much of these things were justified in the name of creating new lives, new ecosystems. Are we sometimes just as cruel to banish life from its conception as we are to destroy it after conception?
OVERVIEW
I am essentially saying that it will eventually be possible for us to design a planet or moon which teems with life from the inside out. It would be the brainchild of our collective knowledge, the successor of the human race. Do you think it's possible? How? Do you think it's ethical? Why?
