should we go to mars? a second-best shot at species immortality

Jim Morris

7/2/12

Should we to go to Mars?

Maybe a new species we create will

dominate the Universe!

How do we do that?

Evolution• Darwin explained evolution. (1858)

• Mendel explained genes. (1865)

• Watson and Crick explained DNA.(1953)

• Hamilton explained gene’s power over creatures. (1964)

• Dawkins explained memes.(1976)

Tall Bald Brown Hair Black Hair Altruistic ConservativeSmith ✔ ✔ ✔Bender ✔ ✔ ✔Root ✔ ✔ ✔Heuck ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Simpson ✔Hershey ✔ ✔ ✔Masich ✔ ✔Sheehan ✔ ✔ ✔Bernard ✔ ✔ ✔Edwards ✔Broff ✔ ✔ ✔Hill ✔ ✔Posvar ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Becker ✔ ✔ ✔Morris ✔ ✔Barensfeld ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Carter ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Schoyer ✔ ✔

Genes MemesRichardDawkins

How are memes stored?

Memes are more important than genes.

Memes are exploding.

Ray Kurzweil

Exponential processes usually stop and become S-curves.

The dominant force of the Universe is Intelligence.

It is carried forward by all species in a kind of relay race.

Humans appear to be carrying the baton, at least for the Solar System, at least for now.

David Deutsch

The New Bigamy

Thesis

BCPL Compiler

Evolution According to …

Hans Moravec Ray Kurzweil

David Deutsch

Evolution in the News• Self-Reproducing Robots Set to Test Boundaries of Space—SpaceDaily,

5/11/2005

• How the iPod explains Globalization—New York Times, 6/30/2011

• Is This the End of Market Democracy?—New York Times, 2/11/2012

• Is Google Making Us Stupid?—The Atlantic, 8/1/2008

• Diagnoses of Autism on the Rise, Report Says—New York Times, 3/29/2012

• College Tuition is out of Control—Washington Post, 10/11/2011

• Rich Mom, Poor Dad, Women Become Breadwinners—NPR, 3/20/2012

• What Structural Unemployment Looks Like—New York Times, 9/26/2010

• America’s big wealth gap, is it good, bad, or irrelevant?—The Christian Science Monitor, 2/14/2012

• Why Ayn Rand is Hot Again—Reason, 10/10/2009

The End

Reconsider our place in the Universe.

The definition of man's uniqueness has always formed the kernel of his cosmological and ethical systems. With Copernicus and Galileo, he ceased to be the species located at the center of the universe, attended by sun and stars. With Darwin, he ceased to be the species created and specially endowed by God with soul and reason. With Freud, he ceased to be the species whose behavior was—potentially—governable by rational mind. As we begin to produce mechanisms that think and learn, he has ceased to be the species uniquely capable of complex, intelligent manipulation of his environment.

I am confident that man will, as he has in the past, find a new way of describing his place in the universe—a way that will satisfy his needs for dignity and for purpose. But it will be a way as different from the present one as was the Copernican from the Ptolemaic.

Herbert Simon

David Deutsch

Quantum Physicist

Intelligence is the

dominant force of the universe.

Richard Dawkins

Evolutionary Biologist

Memes are mental

genes and subject to evolution.

Ray Kurzweil

Inventor

An interstellar computer

will dominate Earth by

2050

Hans Moravec

Robot Scientist

Robots will be

descendants of

humans.

William Hamilton

Evolutionary Biologist

Genes drive behavior

that replicates

themselves.

Jared Diamond

Physiologist

Memes are more

powerful than genes.

Andy Clark

Psychologist

Intelligence is a property of ecosystems, not individual

brains.

Karl Popper Philosopher

Knowledge creation is

evolutionary.

Alan TuringMathematician

There are universal

computers that can simulate any

computer.

Alonzo Church

Mathematician

Gordon MooreIntel

Founder

Summary

• The egg (gene) is more important then the chicken.

• The meme is more important than the gene.• Thinking occurs in ecosystems.• Computer networks are the preferred ecosystem.• Intelligence is the most important thing.• It persists and grows.• We are currently carriers.