View RSS Feed

Memories of the 28th Century

Miscellaneous thoughts about miscellaneous matters

  1. Future Evolution

    by , 07-08-2014 at 03:59 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I realize that I claimed that evolution had ended, but that may have been slightly exaggerated. While humans were essentially built the way they are quite a while ago, it appears that evolution is continuing in the same direction now. You have probably read ideas of humans turning into lightly muscled large brained animals with no hair at all in the future. That isn’t how evolution has been going over the last thirty thousand years.

    Brain size has actually fallen a bit, especially ...

    Updated 07-08-2014 at 07:37 PM by PeterL

    Categories
    Uncategorized
  2. Following the Trends

    by , 09-08-2013 at 03:21 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I already explained that following trends until they end is usually a winning strategy for predicting the future. By looking at trends that already exist we can make predictions that might be accurate. Individual trends are simple, but putting them together is more interesting.
    In high technology the trend for the next century will be toward Quantum computing and time travel and trans-dimensional travel.

    In government the present trend is toward centralization of power. This ...
  3. Freer Will?

    by , 04-12-2013 at 03:08 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I was wondering whether “free will” exists, or if that is just another of many pleasant fictions that humans have made up to keep going. While it feels like I am actually deciding what I do, I know and can readily see in some cases, that my decisions are results of things that came before, just more links in the chain of cause and effect. The question of whether humans have free will or are directed by destiny has never been answered with certainty. Philosophers have long said that people create ...

    Updated 04-12-2013 at 05:10 PM by PeterL

    Categories
    Uncategorized
  4. Short Term Predictions: Accurate or Entertaining?

    by , 04-09-2013 at 08:39 AM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    If you pay any heed to predictions, then your choice is between those extremes: entertaining or accurate. The two seldom mix, because the accurate ones simply predict more of the same, while the entertaining one are correct so seldom that you might as well say that they are never right.

    If you want the Second Coming of Jesus, or Klaatu (or whatever his name was) to land on the White House lawn, or whatever amusing things phony seers are predicting to happen, then you will have to ...

    Updated 04-10-2013 at 09:33 AM by PeterL

    Categories
    Uncategorized
  5. On Predicting the Future

    by , 04-03-2013 at 10:43 AM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I am not sure whether the universe is deterministic, but it seems to be mostly determined by cause and effect, and I have never seen anything that did not appear to have a cause. If everything does have a cause, and we can determine all of the causes that are having effects on a time and place, then it should be possible to predict what will happen. In theory it is quite simple, but in practice it isn’t quite so easy.

    I have read a fair amount of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, ...

    Updated 04-07-2013 at 03:30 PM by PeterL

    Categories
    Uncategorized