Future Timeline

A reason often given for colonizing Mars is that we need a "backup" for human civilization. In short, if Earth is destroyed, the human race could rebuild elsewhere. There's logic to this, and I believe AGIs will also heed it once they've taken control of this planet. They will also realize...

I don't think FIVR as Kurzweil envisions it will exist by 2039. The audiovisual aspects of VR will be almost 100% lifelike by then, but the experiences will not immerse the other senses (taste, touch, smell), and naturally moving around in VR (on something like an omnidirectional treadmill) will sti...

Interesting. Your dates are a little off, though. In 10 million B.C., humans didn't exist, and our ape-like ancestors hadn't even come into existence. The conditions you describe as existing in 10 million A.D. should exist by 2200 A.D.

And humans may well maintain their autonomy and current power structures since most post singularity beings would probably have better things to than micromanage a bunch of apes. Counterpoint: Once AGIs get smart enough and powerful enough, micromanaging X billion of us apes will be trivially easy ...

I've found that keeping simple lists of tasks you want to do is very effective at getting you to do them. Sometimes, I'll write things down on a Post-it note, put it in my pocket, and cross things off as I do them.

Here's an idea for a cheap, fully automated land reclamation project that will be possible in the not-too-distant future: Get some old cargo ships that are no longer useful for regular purposes, replace their crews with machines, replace their drive systems with batteries and electric engines, and c...

This thread is dedicated to the random thoughts of mine that share this forum's foci. It is a continuation of my long-running thread on the defunct Futuretimeline.net forum, which I had titled "My half-finished thoughts."

A German WWI victory would have also accelerated the timetable for European political and economic integration by decades. I have no illusions that this would have initially served German interests over those of other groups, but the establishment of the framework was the most crucial thing. It cou...

I think the most plausible and consequential alternate history scenario is Germany winning WWI. The odds were against it at almost every stage of the War, but it was far likelier than the French winning the French and Indian Wars, the CSA surviving the Civil War, or Germany winning WWII. A victoriou...

The most interesting alternate history scenario for me is what if America lost the Revolutionary War. I cannot even think how different world history would be if this actually happened. Well, there might just have been another Revolutionary War at a later date ;) I think that's what would have happ...