Humanity Will Evolve
Earth is home to millions of species. The earth does not only belong to human beings. It is human beings, who belong to the earth. We, humans, emerged as a species about 200000 years ago. In geological time, it is incredibly recent. About 10000 years ago, there were just one million of us. By 1800, there were one billion of us. By 1960, just sixty years back, there were three billion human beings on the earth. Today, we are around 7.85 billion.
By 2050, we will be 9 billion, and sometime towards the end of this century, there will be 10 billion human species roaming on this planet earth. In this journey of two lakh years, the human species has emerged, as the only species in comparison to the other species on Earth, which has many unique to its credit.
When peering into our genetic makeup, there are important differences between us and our Neanderthal and Denisovans relatives. Geneticists have identified several dozen points in our genome that are unique to us. One of the critical of all is, our hyper-social and cooperative brain. From language and culture to war and love, our most distinctively human behavior is that we have a social element in us. Humans are naturally linked and a strong inclination to think towards the future. We always find ourselves wondering about the next steps in our lives, imagining the potential consequences of events happening around us. Fear, insecurity, accumulation, planning, organizing, and management are the by-product of this trait. Looking back, it’s also clear that we have made up remarkable strides in the past. The world has completely changed in the last one hundred years. At the pace at which technology is in the process of evolving, we can feel dizzy at times. Moreover, it’s also certain that this process is not going to slow down anytime in near future. How it is going to shape life on this earth in the next hundred years is a big question.
Let’s try to visualize life on Earth by the end of this century. The way Internet, transformed the whole society over the past decade is unbelievable. Quantum computing will completely change the view of the world and our place in it forever in near future. It will equip us more than adequately, to not only process more data, at an unimaginable pace, rather we will be able to develop communication with almost everything we will manufacture. Fully integrated devices are not a distant reality. Brain-computer interface (BCI) is now firmly out of the realms of science fiction. Examples of the prototypes which helped patient’s recovery from strokes and to provide the ability to experience the touch again among the amputees depict the reality of BCI.
________________________________________________________________________
Read Also : Peaceful Practice: Does Yoga Breathing Oxygenate the Body?
________________________________________________________________________
3D printers become capable of printing everything from critical organs to buildings. It can be applied in almost every field of life. Using a precision medicine approach, (which uses patients’ genetic data), scientists are developing treatments for all kinds of diseases. Thus, major diseases like cancer, immune and inflammatory disorders, and genetic conditions, will be very likely be abolished in the coming years. Diagnostic technology and prognosis will be specifically monitored and the quality of treatment is going to be improved substantially.
The advance in space exploration will completely change the way we look at life on planet earth. We will catch a better glimpse of distant celestial bodies including distant galaxies through increasingly powerful infrared telescopes placed in space. Space elevators will certainly be around. Space travel will not only be a reality, rather will be a comfortable and affordable expedition. It will create a strong acceleration in space exploration. By 2121, extra-terrestrial life won’t be limited to news only. It will be a hardcore reality. What’s harder to predict is, how humanity will respond and adapt to knowing that, we are not alone in the universe.
Farming in oceans will not be limited to fishing only. We will be required to feed 10 billion people in the coming years. Nature can’t keep up with that kind of demand. Genetically modified saltwater algae could free up to 70% of freshwater, which is now used for conventional agriculture. This water could go to a thirsty population. We will be able to control the weather. There’s already some weather control technology is available with the US and China, for mediating tornadoes, and making artificial rain. It is also quite likely that there will be few regional currencies by 2050. There’s every possibility of worldwide acceptance of a global currency.
At present, medical nanorobots exist only in theory. Nanotechnology is limited to material science only. Nanorobots will be a reality in near future, which will completely change the way, we look at life. We are going to have a Sussed nuclear fusion. This is likely by 2050 and almost certain by 2100. It will help in meeting the increased energy demands based on greener and smarter technologies. With the help of technology, Deserts will become tropical forests. There’s every possibility that we may have just three languages by the end of this century. English will be one of them. The free flow of communication has converted this world into a global village. There’s every possibility that Sovereign nation-states may cease to exist, and there will be a one-world government.
In the process, the economic policy emphasis would have to shift from efficiency and quantitative growth to equity and qualitative growth. Wealthy countries will have to reduce their consumption by up to 80% to create the ecological space necessary for justifiable growth in developing countries. A planned effort will be required for underpinning the values of society shift from competitive individualism, greed, and narrow self-interest to the community, cooperation, and common interest in surviving with dignity. Human has a history of 200000 years evolution. As per reports, the pace of human evolution increased with the advent of agriculture and urbanization. We are still evolving. In the next millennium, we may survive with whatever environmental and social challenges are in store for us. Speculation ranges from hopeful to dystopian.
________________________________________________________________________
Read Also : Explained: Why and how NASA’s Perseverance mission produced oxygen on Mars
There can be one more dreary possibility. Machine efficiency can become the new measure of evolutionary fitness, where humans would be weeded out of lineage. Boston wrote, ” The extravagances and fun that give human life much of its meaning with humour, love, game, arts, culture, socializing, philosophy, religion, literature, scientific discoveries, food and drink, friendship, parenting, sports, we have our preferences and capabilities that make us engage in such activities. These prepositions are adaptive in the evolutionary system. But what ground do we have, that these or similar activities will continue to be adaptive in the future?”
The final possibilities of human evolution in the next hundred years are. Number one, we largely stay as we are now. This is called STASIS. Secondly, a new human species evolves on either this planet or from some other planet. This is called SPECIATION. The third, which is called SYMBIOSIS WITH MACHINES, is the integration of machine and human brain producing a collective intelligence. This may or may not retain the qualities, we now recognize as human. Let humans work, wait and watch this critical evolutionary process of the future course of HUMAN EVOLUTION on this earth.
Tags: #agriculture, #Century, #citizens, #earth, #environment, #factory, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #humanity, #planet, #solar
