Will Humans Ever Control the Laws Themselves?

[Luminal]

Alright. Put your mindset in the year 10,442 Anno Domini. Humans have discovered and harnessed control of everything we consider possible. They are spread throughout one-third of the known Universe. They look upon our current Science textbooks as we look upon artwork on cave walls of Cro-Magnon habitats.

 

In those days, in which [what we call] humans have mastered every form of energy manipulation, matter manipulation, reached the physical limits of information processing, added new base colors to their brain to represent a larger range of the EM spectrum, and discovered the origins of the reality itself unequivocally (as opposed to just the last 13 billions years in this particular Universe).

 

So, the only thing left? Controlling the very laws of the Universe (or the Multiverse). Changing c to any amount they wish, creating new Fundamental forces, writing a new Periodic Table, ignoring the Laws of Thermodynamics, and so on.

 

Keep in mind, a chimp's brain and human's brain are quite similar, but just a few small cognitive improvements resulted in a massive range of advancements, not least of which are language and technology. So, what could many cognitive improvements lead to?

[ecoli]

unless there are mulitverses where the physical laws are different, I don't think it's possible.

[geoguy]

It's a great question.

 

However, modern man has no more control of the properties of matter and energy than a primitive bacterium. We understand matter and energy better but every atom is subject to the same properties whether it is in the most advanced computer or a speck of inter gallactic dust.

 

The properties of the universe aren't about life and non-life or 'man' somehow gaining some anthro-centric ability to change reality. It happens in every episode of Star Trek and Star Wars movie but those are fantasy.

 

Of course what man eventually accomplished using the existing properties of matter and energy will wow us one day.

[swansont]

Moved to speculations.

[foodchain]

Alright. Put your mindset in the year 10,442 Anno Domini. Humans have discovered and harnessed control of everything we consider possible. They are spread throughout one-third of the known Universe. They look upon our current Science textbooks as we look upon artwork on cave walls of Cro-Magnon habitats.

 

In those days, in which [what we call] humans have mastered every form of energy manipulation, matter manipulation, reached the physical limits of information processing, added new base colors to their brain to represent a larger range of the EM spectrum, and discovered the origins of the reality itself unequivocally (as opposed to just the last 13 billions years in this particular Universe).

 

So, the only thing left? Controlling the very laws of the Universe (or the Multiverse). Changing c to any amount they wish, creating new Fundamental forces, writing a new Periodic Table, ignoring the Laws of Thermodynamics, and so on.

 

Keep in mind, a chimp's brain and human's brain are quite similar, but just a few small cognitive improvements resulted in a massive range of advancements, not least of which are language and technology. So, what could many cognitive improvements lead to?

 

In some terms I thought about what life will be like for humans in so much time. Not only in respects to our biology, such as what will we look like, or such, but in regards to the universe. What if the big crunch is real, what are people going to do? In one scenario, speculation of course, if the universe starts to go back into a singularity. I mean in the vacuum of space, I imagine the gravity of the singularity being rather powerful really, and who knows how long that will take. What if people find a way to stop this, will the universe die from heat death? Its a million questions really, but overall thinking about such in any real extent basically at some point leads to a wall really, at least in my opinion.

[Luminal]

I fully believe humans are on the path to controlling the fate of the Universe itself.

 

Why do people think that our progress will suddenly stop one day? It won't, unless we are completely wiped out from a plague or some such existential threat. Barring that, we'll continue to spread and increase our mastery over physical reality.

 

There's no reason to think that humans won't be capable of preventing a heat death or big crunch, if that is indeed the natural fate of the Universe. Humans will eventually spread throughout the known Universe, unless another intelligent (or unintelligent, for that matter) life-form stops us or destroys us.

[foodchain]

I fully believe humans are on the path to controlling the fate of the Universe itself.

 

Why do people think that our progress will suddenly stop one day? It won't, unless we are completely wiped out from a plague or some such existential threat. Barring that, we'll continue to spread and increase our mastery over physical reality.

 

There's no reason to think that humans won't be capable of preventing a heat death or big crunch, if that is indeed the natural fate of the Universe. Humans will eventually spread throughout the known Universe, unless another intelligent (or unintelligent, for that matter) life-form stops us or destroys us.

 

Yes but in millions of years it might be something to me to suggest that our brain chemistry alone might change a bit, might have a different set of receptors even and so on, who knows? If that holds true though "humanity" might collectively become something else, even something a bit alien from what we conceive as humanity today. I doubt for there to be any real liberal or conservative culture, because we have so much ignorance overall if what makes us human in a more organic sense.

 

To couple with this on the idea of the big crunch, how exactly would you escape that, or stop it? What would stopping it lead to, how would we survive heat death really. I mean if space-time is physical and sets the boundaries for physical space, I don’t think anything could escape it without some serious violations of something, or an amount of energy I don’t see how one could harness in essence to stop such. IN heat death would the BEC come to exist for all matter in the universe? What do you do at that point. I mean absolute zero to me means 0 energy really, and matter busts apart right? How do you prevent that?

 

Now of course I cant honestly say humans or whatever organism that does happen to make it so some point like I described cant make it, I just currently don’t see how really.

 

If you got any ideas I think it would be very interesting to hear about them of course though. Personally the only thing I can think of which is very far fetched involves the use of basically genetics to absorb the entire universe into a collective organism that can be managed via a "brain" really.

[Luminal]

Yes but in millions of years it might be something to me to suggest that our brain chemistry alone might change a bit, might have a different set of receptors even and so on, who knows? If that holds true though "humanity" might collectively become something else, even something a bit alien from what we conceive as humanity today. I doubt for there to be any real liberal or conservative culture, because we have so much ignorance overall if what makes us human in a more organic sense.

 

To couple with this on the idea of the big crunch, how exactly would you escape that, or stop it? What would stopping it lead to, how would we survive heat death really. I mean if space-time is physical and sets the boundaries for physical space, I don’t think anything could escape it without some serious violations of something, or an amount of energy I don’t see how one could harness in essence to stop such. IN heat death would the BEC come to exist for all matter in the universe? What do you do at that point. I mean absolute zero to me means 0 energy really, and matter busts apart right? How do you prevent that?

 

Now of course I cant honestly say humans or whatever organism that does happen to make it so some point like I described cant make it, I just currently don’t see how really.

 

If you got any ideas I think it would be very interesting to hear about them of course though. Personally the only thing I can think of which is very far fetched involves the use of basically genetics to absorb the entire universe into a collective organism that can be managed via a "brain" really.

 

Well, the most obvious concept to prevent this is the very one this thread is about: manipulating the laws themselves. If mankind could "turn the dials" on the constants and laws of the Universe, we could weaken gravity, create matter and energy, increase or reduce c, and... well, you understand.

 

Now, I obviously have no clue in hell how they would do this, but neither could a Cro-Magnon man envision modern society, as a rat could not understand a Cro-Magnon man (cave paintings, spears, huts, etc), and as a bacteria could not understand a rat's activities.

 

Excluding controlling the laws of the Universe, I think we will simply continue to increase in "normal" technological prowness, to the point that it seems we are omnipotent (quantum computers that can calculate nigh infinite information, initiating star formation at our will, feeding off black holes for energy, and the vast amount of other inventions future scientists will spawn).

 

In other words, unless something stops us, nothing will stop us.