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Old 08-09-2006, 12:20 AM   #66
9th Engineer
Bioengineer and aspiring lawer
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 872
Well to be honest the science of evolution is 95% carbon dating and material analysis, the rest has the same science content as studying medieval castles. Determining the age of a rock is science, the Theory of Evolution is history. You can test it with genetics, chemistry and biology, but it isn't in any of those fields. You'd be very supprised at how little respect most real scientists have for all but a few scientists who work with evolution, our research grants depend on us keeping that to ourselves though. It's the same thing you see in global warming, scientists on both sides are pressured to say what their employers want to hear because if not 'the other side wins'. I kid you not. It drives the rest of us absolutly nuts.

Honestly, I'd be happier with a good theory of evolution than proof of god, it's more convenient in my line of work. I deal mostly with implants and neural motor prosthesis. Evolution makes sense to me because I can see the next step, we are driven to devolop non-neuron based computational technology because our flesh has hit it's developmental limit. Our brains have an advantage over computers now only because of parallel computing, in terms of processing speed we are no match. The human brain can perform about 20 million billion calculations persecond, our computers now can match about 60% of that. By around 2013 we will be able to replicate the full potential of the human mind, and by 2030 about a million dollars will buy you a computer as powerful as every human on the planet combined. See the pattern? We won't stay competitive for much longer, so will be forced to either fade away or form a sybiosis with our superior counterparts.

Unfortunatly research on linking our nervous system directly into our computers is behind the times, but not by a serious margin. You may have heard of Matt Nagle, in 2001 he was paralysed from the neck down and cannot breath without assistance or talk at all. Thanks to an implant in his neuromotor cortex he can now type, move a mouse, control his wheelchair and move a robotic arm.


Everything in our bodies is simple electrical interaction, all you have to do is isolate it and control it. Our children will probably think nothing of porting their entire consciousness directly into their computers.
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