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[Scoops Novel]

Let's rule out parallel dimensions while we're at it.

[MrRoboto75]

It doesn't.

[ChairmanPoo]

Drill to the c of the f moon

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180318.0

[Scoops Novel]

You've got to get Nature on board haven't you. We can't be allowed to be the only intelligent species; you need to cook up Dryads. Something to fight for the wildernesses.

That's the missing link in our global development. We keep killing everything. Our technology is balancing itself out, but we keep damaging the ecosystem.

You need something to specifically look after the wilds. Fight for it, repair it, preserve it.

Gene edit something together? Clone a million high IQ naturists and turn up their aggression?

Hmm... something more like maybe giving them 5% above the peak of human intelligence and giving them all the genes associated with a nature connection.

[TamerVirus]

Mankind wins by implementing and leveraging synergetic management solutions and maximizing shareholder value!

[Telgin]

We can still colonize the galaxy without FTL or even AI.  It's much slower without FTL and much harder without AI, but it can be done.  I guess that counts as winning, since there is no victory condition defined by the universe.

[MaxTheFox]

We can still colonize the galaxy without FTL or even AI.  It's much slower with FTL and much harder without AI, but it can be done.  I guess that counts as winning, since there is no victory condition defined by the universe.

Yeah, this.

We're not in a 4X game, there's no "win".

Also these threads keep getting more and more inane.

[King Zultan]

I think he wants us to go outside and punch trees and stuff, not really sure how that counts as a win for humanity though.

[Scoops Novel]

We're not in a 4X game, there's no "win".

The problem is there's definitely a lose.

Hence the thread. There are alternatives to being killed by viruses, nukes, social chaos or AI in the dangerous decade, and I'd like to hear them.

[Great Order]

Biological/mechanical enhancement to make human brains (Or some sort of organic brain, grown or already born) larger/better.

See, we can't make artificial intelligence, but there's nothing saying we can't manipulate genes and use drugs and nutrition to make already-intelligent things even moreso. And I don't think humanity's gonna be unable to crack that code given enough time.

[EuchreJack]

Counterquestion: "Does Humanity "win" with AI or FTL?"
Answer: No

Both technologies, at this stage of our evolution, are likely to just exasperate our existing problems rather than solving them.

Humanity must do what it always must do: Roll up its sleeves and clean up their own shit.

[Magmacube_tr]

You've got to get Nature on board haven't you.

Yea of course. Can you even imagine this place without Nature?

[Rolan7]

We can still colonize the galaxy without FTL or even AI.  It's much slower without FTL and much harder without AI, but it can be done.  I guess that counts as winning, since there is no victory condition defined by the universe.

Sooorta.
By fundamentally changing our society and even our biology, perhaps.  (Yes I'm taking the Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri approach here).  I'm making the positive statement that our species, as it stands, will not colonize other star systems.  We are not capable of it.  We are too entrenched in personal interest to complete such a goal.

If I'm wrong, it would be via some sort of utopian society where all basic needs are met for practically everyone.  Something which is materially available TODAY and yet, apparently out of reach.  Politics and society are a complex web which, it seems, will drag us down.

Edit: Hence my sometimes-interest in an "abstract actor", such as an AI, to "lay down the law".  But that has obvious problems.  Even an AI with the goal of utopian colonization would need to kill a great number of people if introduced in the current day.

[Telgin]

I won't dispute that we're going to have to find some powerful incentives for anyone to invest in an interstellar spaceship, but I think we'll find the incentives.  Don't forget, that includes things like the next generation of ultra-wealthy trillionaires who may want to own an entire solar system, and who may be willing to spend a stupid amount of money if it means they can do that.  That's selfish and still leads to interstellar colonization.  Even better, we've got evidence that such people can even recruit a bunch of true believers to be their colonists when they get there.  It's also just one example, but I imagine there are others.

Of course, it does mean that most organizations won't have much incentive to lead interstellar colonization efforts.  If you can't reach or even really talk with them, you can't control them and they'll no longer be part of you.

I guess we've got to survive until we develop the kind of technology that permits any of that in the first place though, and it's really hard to guess when that'll be.  Probably not in the next hundred years.

[EuchreJack]

Hm, we're looking at the best-of-the-best to operate a generational colony ship, but what about the other end of the spectrum?

The consequences of a Generational Penal Colony Ship are far more interesting...