Transcendence And The Next Step In Humanity's Evolution

We could all float a theory. That might be fun

It seems to me that "evolution" is a purely biological phenomenon. The idea of non-corporeal consciousness is "absurd" insofar as consciousness is an epiphenomenon of physical processes (and, conversely, physicality is an idea held by consciousness--one cannot exist without the other).
In addition, "evolution" is not a teleological process; it is not goal driven. Evolution is a theoretical scheme by which scientists integrate data and models from various disciplines to explain change, not "progress."
Nevertheless, it IS fun to fantasize.

rosborne979 wrote:

We could all float a theory. That might be fun

OK I've got nothing to lose! I know the below really does not answer why there would not be at least a bit of intelligent electromagnetic activity, but it narrows it somewhat. Nevertheless the overwhelming weight of the evidence at this point is we are unique, at least technologically.

If it was a natural filter, I can't see how it could discriminate between complex natural radiations and complex artificial radiations (at least not in any meaningful broad band sense).

If was an artificial filter then the power to squelch/attenuate transmissions over such a vast amount of (mostly empty) space in such an extremely specific & discriminate manner would be truly boggling.

The fact that we can already receive very faint and IMHO very complex broad band natural radiations, makes me question a natural filter exists.

I can certainly present lots of god (pun & typo) reasons why the Universal Constructors might want to keep us isolated though, not the least of which is to have each race develop independently.

I know of at least two ways to modulate transmissions, F.M. & A.M., with pulsars being A.M. AFAICT both types modulations are broad-band receivable from beyond the Oort Cloud from (presumed) natural sources.

These Constructor fellers must sure know how to make a celestial filter!

One question: how evolutionarily likely is it in general terms to have intelligence that creates high technology? Obviously given the precise conditions on earth it was inevitable, but if evolutionary history is any indicator, it's far from a forgone conclusion simply because it was inevitable on earth.

That's another variable in the Drake equation. We have only one data point to go by, and that's us. We can't make much of a chart with only one data point.

We could say however that complex intelligence has arisen here several in several forms, they just haven't all taken the final step to technology. Dolphin's, Apes, Octopii, Crows, and possibly several other animals have fairly complex cognitive abilities. How close are they to developing technology?

But if we were to vanish from the scene and it only took one of them 65million years to do it, there would still be lots of time to colonize the Milky Way with Octopii built Universal Constructors.

And remember, our Sun is probably a third generation star (I read that somewhere), so we got started late in the Universal scheme of things.

Where are they?

Chumly, do you think that bionic additions to the human physique are part of his evolution? It seems to me that unless we change humans physically they may have undergone external addiitions, like good shoes, but remain the same bioiogically. Only by means of eugenics can we engineer goal-driven change. And then it remains problematical whether or not it will be considered "progress" in the long run. And progress by what standard?

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