Could humans live forever on Earth? (page 2)

Moxy

i should just like to quietly tack on to this thread my little related rant about when i hear a speaker (or anyone for that matter) repeat the urban legend that scientists have proven that we only use 1% or less of our brain capacity and are therefore designed to live forever. this was stated again in the introduction of the memorial talk on thursday and made me cringe. i note that the WT has removed the statement from literature in the last ten years (live forever book is the most egregious example) but naturally, has never actually stated that it is false, leaving everyone free to continue to repeat the lie in countless talks. i was a repeat offender myself until i tried to research exactly *what* the real percentage was (some say 10%, while WT speakers frequently say 1/1000th!) and exactly *what* the percentage purports to measure.

the truth is of course that we use all our brain.

mox

SYN

Well, if God can make us live forever in a paradise Earth, then why the hell doesn't he sort us out right now?

[SYN], UADA - Unseen Apostate Directorate of Africa - For Great Justice!

julien

1.The Sun will eventually die. This causes obvious problems to life on earth.

Yep. Humans will have to find other planets to inhabit. Or more likely, hollowed out asteroids. Hollow out the inside and live on the inner surface. The astroid is spun to create a simulated gravity.

2.Earth goes through cycles of large climate change over thousands of years , resulting in such drastic climatic conditions as ice ages.

Shouldn't be too hard to adapt to. If you were living forever I suspect this sort of thing would be a welcome change.

3.The gravity of the earth is gradually changing (Can't remember if its going up or down)either way this would change what kind of life can live on earth.(magnetic polls shift as well and reverse over time, I'm not sure what effect if any this has but I believe they are getting weaker which would have an effect.)

I think you should check your notes on this one. The magnetic poles definitely shift around a lot (geological-time-ly speaking) but gravity is based on the mass of the earth which only increases extremely gradually. If the poles shifted or reversed today it would cause a lot of havoc technology wise, but future technologically advanced humans should be able to adapt.

4.Universe expanding , eventually stars too far away which would effect the gravitational pulls on our galaxy which could have big effects on our sun (if it was still there)in turn effecting the earth.

Don't think this one is right either. The universe is expanding but that doesn't mean everything is uniformly moving away from everything else. Within our galaxy (which is not expanding) stars are moving in various directions. Even if the galaxy was expanding the gravity effects from other stars at this distance are so minute that the effect on us and our sun is negligible.

5.Meteorites and other space debris are a constant danger to the earth. One large impact could destroy much life.

This sort of thing could wipe us out at any time. For an entertaining scifi read on this read Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Hopefully in the future this will be something that technogy can handle.

The one you forgot was #6. Heat death of the universe. When the universe reaches maximum entropy, that is, all of the heat energy is spread uniformly, no more 'work' is possible. (Work in the physics sense of a force moving thru a distance).. Past that point nothing is possible. Of course future discoveries could even solve this one.

singsongboi

E.L. on earth was the key attraction for me also!!!!

i was an idealistic (read..dumb) kid when i was young.. became an atheist when i was about 14, then a communist (well, sympathiser), mainly because i thot it the best way to give everyone a better life on earth (tole u i was a dumb kid!!!)...

got interested in jws, because i saw in paper they were refusing to fight in war (korean) and i did not want to fight and kill people either..

so i went to meeting ( and stayed ) ---- dumb and dumber!!!!!!!!!

and absolutely believed that i could help people live forever on earth -- sacraficed everything to do that!!!!

how can a person be so dumb ???????

hippikon

Moxy

1% or less of our brain capacity

So if we removed 99% of your brain you wouldnt notice
How about 80%
OK Then how about 50%
Just how much of your brain do you need / use?

Farkel Amazing

The time left is reduced

Xander

He already answered that - we use 100% of our brains.

Not all at once, to be sure (well, most the time, anyway). It's like a PC - do you use your soundcard, 3d accelerator, and game controller when word processing? Of course not, they have no use for the function. OTOH, how many use their floppy drive or printer when playing a shooter?

Different parts of the brain do different functions - it doesn't take long (typical day? week?) before we have managed to use all parts of it at least once.

A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana

Xander

Yep. Humans will have to find other planets to inhabit.

Little hard to do if you can't leave the planet. Remember, in the 'new system', there will be no pollution or damage to the environment. How, exactly, do you plan on getting out of Earth's gravity field without using rockets?

And you can forget about this being a problem 'perfect humans' can solve. Their is no air in space. You need rockets, or some kind of propellant - which will, by its nature, pollute - to move (or solar sails, but that won't get you far out of the solar system).

Besides, the elders frequently drilled it into our heads - god's stated intention was to have people 'fill the Earth and subdue it'. The 'new system' will just return us to this purpose. Nothing mentioned about other planets, here. We'd just fill the Earth and subdue it. For a few billion years. Then *pop*.

A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana

Nathan Natas

I'd like to add to Sleepy's list:

6. Tectonic/Volcanic activity on earth may have been responsible for nearly exterminating humanity in the year 600 CE, and may also have been the cause of the Permian extinction. People have difficult livng well when their neighborhood is covered by 2,000 feet or more of lava. I know, I've tried it. It hurt, and it left a mark.

If I might add to Moxy's comments:

the urban legend that scientists have proven that we only use 1% or less of our brain capacity and are therefore designed to live forever.

At the very best this might suggest a life more than 100 times as long, but a life of 8,000 years only seems like "forever" to an elder who has to take off his shoes and socks to count above ten.

Xander - Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel systems for rockets would produce only water as a product of combustion, and electromagnetic propulsion systems powered by fusion reactors would not "pollute" space. But I think the issue of "pollution" is wrong, because the cycles of nature have ways of breaking down "pollutants" - and we WOULD have forever, right? whatever the Paradisains might eat, I doubt that they'd shit potato salad.

- Nathan Natas, UADNA
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America)

Xander

Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel systems for rockets
I was under the impression Hydrogen-Oxygen rockets were extremely inefficient for propulsion. The amount of time you could 'burn' the engine would be too short to make meaningful speed out of it (IE., conventional wisdom has it that you'd 'burn' the engine halfway to your destination to accelerate the entire time, rotate and 'burn' to slow down, or find some other means of slowing down - but a Hydrogen ship could not carry enough fuel to keep burning halfway to even a moderately distant destination).

And, yes, I am aware the "pollutants" break down over time, and we WOULD have forever [8>], but the message the society always put forth is that no pollution would ever take place.

electromagnetic propulsion systems

Ummm...unless I am horribly mis-informed, electromagnetic fields are a product of concentrations of metals in a gravity field. Planets, that is. Once you are outside of a planetary gravity field, the background EM fields of space are chaotic, random, and minimal. FAR too little to use as propulsion.

In any case, you'd need to make the ships out of metal (and TONS of it - it takes feet upon feet of metals to provide sufficient shielding against the hard radiation of deep space). I am not aware of any refining or forging processes that do not damage the environment. And, a fleet of ships big enough to move the population of Earth?

A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana

patio34

Hi Moxy,
you said

i should just like to quietly tack on to this thread my little related rant about when i hear a speaker (or anyone for that matter) repeat the urban legend that scientists have proven that we only use 1% or less of our brain capacity and are therefore designed to live forever. this was stated again in the introduction of the memorial talk on thursday and made me cringe. i note that the WT has removed the statement from literature in the last ten years (live forever book is the most egregious example) but naturally, has never actually stated that it is false, leaving everyone free to continue to repeat the lie in countless talks. i was a repeat offender myself until i tried to research exactly *what* the real percentage was (some say 10%, while WT speakers frequently say 1/1000th!) and exactly *what* the percentage purports to measure.
the truth is of course that we use all our brain.

This always bothered me. It seems to me that the 1% or 10% could refer to memory storage only. But even that would be far-fetched. Then elders/speakers fail to keep up with the nuances of the WT writings, as you pointed out, they quit saying that. But the speakers will dully continue to regurgitate old "light," never noticing the subtle withdrawal the WT has made.

I believe it was the same with it never having rained before Noah's time, then they changed the songbook and quit saying that. But they didn't admit they were wrong.

Pat

Could humans live forever on Earth?

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