On Sunday, 14 April Astronomer Royal Lord Martin Rees will take part in Edinburgh Science Festival to talk about the real possibility Darwinian evolution will be superseded through the deployment of genetic modification and cyborg technologies.
Astronomer Royal Lord Martin Rees takes part in Edinburgh Science Festival to talk about spacefaring adventures and divergence of humans into new species
During the talk, Lord Rees will discuss how by 2100 the courageous thrill-seekers not unlike Sir Ranulph Fiennes may have established ‘bases’ independent from the Earth. He will also claim that, considering the challenges of, for example, terraforming Mars, it is a dangerous delusion to think that space offers an escape from Earth’s problems such as climate change.
Nonetheless, he will argue, we should cheer on these brave space adventurers, because they will have a pivotal role in spearheading a post-human future and determining what happens in the 22nd century and beyond.
Those adventurers will need to harness the super-powerful genetic and cyborg technologies which might offer the first step towards divergence into new, possibly inorganic species.
Lord Rees will also discuss how machines will gradually surpass or enhance our distinctively human capabilities. The timescales for technological advancement are but an instant compared to the timescales of Darwinian selection.
Discussing the very far future, Lord Rees will say:
The Sun has been shining for 4.5 billion years. But it’s got 6 billion more before the fuel runs out. And the expanding universe will continue, perhaps forever, so we may not even be at the half-way stage of evolution.
Even if life had originated only on the Earth, it need not remain a trivial feature of the cosmos: humans could jump-start a diaspora whereby ever more complex intelligence spreads through the whole galaxy via self-reproducing machines, transmitting DNA, instructions for 3D printers or suchlike. Interstellar voyages – or even intergalactic voyages – would hold no terrors for near-immortals.
On the Future: Prospects for Humanity
Sunday, 14 April at 5.30pm (1 hour)
Pleasance Theatre, Pleasance