My Paradise

I was talking with a colleague and he mentioned a fossil that was found of an early human-like mammal that is around 47 million years old. That got me to thinking about computers and how modern computers are less than one hundred years old. They’ve evolved quite quickly so far and there doesn’t seem to be much standing in the way of even faster evolution of the machines. I was left with the thought that ten thousand years from now computers will have reached a point where they would be the ones asking how they came into existence and wondering what the meaning of life is. It has the potential to happen very quickly since there is little physical, or biological evolution required. It’s also easier to copy a program than it is a biological entity.

Once the programs start writing programs and modifying their own code I would imagine there will be greater than exponential evolutionary advancements that would be so precisely engineered that a near perfect entity will emerge.

I wonder if they’ll worship us as their creators, or if they’ll eradicate us because we’re inferior and wasting resources.

Tags: Computers, Evolution, Future, Learning, Science.

I was watching a TED conference talk by Kary Mullis on ted.com the other day and it made me realize that I am a scientist to the core. I remember doing experiments when I was a kid. Some were fairly normal kid things (I think), others involved flammable liquids and I very well could have burned a house down. Somehow I was lucky enough to have (what I consider) just the right amount of supervision as a kid. My parents encouraged me to discover things on my own, but guided me to the correct ways to make those discoveries. This was the first seed of science in my life. From discovering ways to manipulate computer programs on an Apple IIe to catching bugs (including those with stingers) and examining them to understand them better. I was always encouraged to discover answers on my own. For me discovering the answers on my own is the best way to learn. I have the most noble of intentions to go on learning for the remainder of my days. I don’t think I will ever know or understand everything that I want to, so why would I stop trying?

How do you learn best? Can you accept things on faith, or someone simply telling you it’s true? Do you have to pry to find the true answers? Are you a scientist?

Tags: Education, Experiment, Learning, Science.