How Will Atheists Respond To This Question?

[Laudate_Dominum]

What is a reasonable range of probability for arriving at some hypothetical set of conditions necessary to evolve a gene pool comparable to homo sapiens within the projected lifetime of our sun, beginning with a world stripped of all forms of life other than bacteria? I can give you an exact figure: diddly point squat. Infinitesimal doesn't even do it justice.

edit: jargon scrubbing.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Laudate_Dominum

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='thessalonian' timestamp='1298946600' post='2216661']all life above that of microbes[/quote]
I suppose the infinitesimal "possibility" would be elevated if we include eukaryotic microorganisms perhaps similar to ancestors of multicellular animal life. However, I'd say we're still most definitely outside the realm of remote possibility as far as the emergence of a homo sapiens comparable embryology and gene pool is concerned.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='thessalonian' timestamp='1298990802' post='2216759']
So can we expect to see higher beings in the future? Maybe that would dominate us? Will they come from out of humanity or from the animials? Is there a limit to the heights to which creatures can reach?
[/quote]
Who knows. Millions of years from now, the earth may be a very different place. Organisms will change, yes, but to what extent, we don't know. It depends on the environment, what happens to us as a race, what happens to other organisms, etc.

So, again, we don't know. I certainly don't nor do I pretend to.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Agreed. While there is an obvious sense in which such things as genetics and evolution are reductionistic, the result, namely life, is a complex system and its dynamics are rooted in chaos theory (in this case reductionism /= determinism). If you could somehow rewind the evolution of a species back to a particular point and let things play out again, it would be a mistake to expect the same result. Even with absolutely identical initial conditions, and all synergistic complexity aside, the quest for determinism would, in the case of life, be undone by the applicability of quantum indeterminacy in random genetic mutation.

edit: for clarification.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Laudate_Dominum

[Ed Normile]

[quote name='thessalonian' timestamp='1298946600' post='2216661']
All you atheists out there image for a moment that all life above that of microbes on earth was destroyed. When would humans walk the earth again?
[/quote]

Well, if these atheists had just a few more brain cells than the microbes you speak of they would probably say, humans would walk the earth just as soom as the space shuttle crew returns from its orbit. Unless you decide to modify your question to include all life circling the earth on the international space station too.


ed

[Mr.Cat]

[quote name='Ed Normile' timestamp='1299040692' post='2217033']Well, if these atheists had just a few more brain cells than the microbes you speak of they would probably say, humans would walk the earth just as soom as the space shuttle crew returns from its orbit. Unless you decide to modify your question to include all life circling the earth on the international space station too.[/quote]Teaser. Though not for long, how would they live?

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='thessalonian' timestamp='1298990802' post='2216759']
So can we expect to see higher beings in the future? Maybe that would dominate us? Will they come from out of humanity or from the animials? Is there a limit to the heights to which creatures can reach?[/quote]
It seems like we've been keeping other species down, trashing ecosystems and biodiversity, so for this and other reasons I'd say the best bet for our fall from the top would a transhumanist / technological singularity scenario. Actually, another possibility might be some unprecedented disease pandemic, or the occasional doomsday asteroid, or maybe an extreme and sudden climate change event. Anyway, something that would take us down enough notches for some other life-form to have some chance of emerging as a challenge to our dominance.

'Tis a dismal line of speculation anyway. lol. Why do you ask mate?

[Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' timestamp='1299042842' post='2217048']
It seems like we've been keeping other species down, trashing ecosystems and biodiversity, so for this and other reasons I'd say the best bet for our fall from the top would a transhumanist / technological singularity scenario. Actually, another possibility might be some unprecedented disease pandemic, or the occasional doomsday asteroid, or maybe an extreme and sudden climate change event. Anyway, something that would take us down enough notches for some other life-form to have some chance of emerging as a challenge to our dominance.

'Tis a dismal line of speculation anyway. lol. Why do you ask mate?
[/quote]

After watching the computer navigate natural language and beat the two best Jeopardy players, I think that skynet is a much more likely scenario. I for one welcome our computer overlords.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam' timestamp='1299045745' post='2217069']
After watching the computer navigate natural language and beat the two best Jeopardy players, I think that skynet is a much more likely scenario. [b] I for one welcome our computer overlords.[/b]
[/quote]

Edited March 2, 2011 by Nihil Obstat

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam' timestamp='1299045745' post='2217069']
After watching the computer navigate natural language and beat the two best Jeopardy players, I think that skynet is a much more likely scenario. I for one welcome our computer overlords.
[/quote]


Indeed. A part of me would seriously prefer computer overlords to human overlords who wield unheard of technological powers over us rabble. Seriously, what's worse? Ray Kurzweil's fantasy life or Derrick Jensen's vision of the future? Watson seems to be a rather nice chap. . .

[url="http://books.google.com/books?id=lbl4MN3iUHsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false"]The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence[/url]
[url="http://books.google.com/books?id=JcXO8GLMd2sC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false"]Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control[/url]

edit: links added.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Laudate_Dominum

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam' timestamp='1299045745' post='2217069']
After watching the computer navigate natural language and beat the two best Jeopardy players, I think that skynet is a much more likely scenario. I for one welcome our computer overlords.
[/quote]
The only reason Watson won was because of his superiour ability to buzz in

[Winchester]

[quote name='ardillacid' timestamp='1299079390' post='2217130']
The only reason Watson won was because of his superiour ability to buzz in
[/quote]
If you shoot first and shoot well, you win. A win is a win.

[Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam]

[quote name='ardillacid' timestamp='1299079390' post='2217130']
The only reason Watson won was because of his superiour ability to buzz in
[/quote]

That was not the impressive thing. What made it so impressive was that the computer could (I won't say comprehend because that isn't right) but deal with natural language and give the correct response. In jeopardy it would have to deal with puns, jokes, and other things and it did. That is what was impressive, it could deal with natural language...just one step closer to HAL reading our lips.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Winchester' timestamp='1299089968' post='2217183']
If you shoot first and shoot well, you win. A win is a win.
[/quote]
Your violent rhetoric is dangerous and getting people killed

[AudreyGrace]

In my experience, it seems that atheists almost don't care about such things as the continuation of human life after a situation you presented, but more so that what will happen.. happens, and what can we do to make this life our greatest.