The Future is going to be Weird

The future is going to be weird. So weird, in fact, that it’s going to make all of the Dystopian Fiction from the 1950s and 60s look like Child’s Play. <br><br>Humanity is going to colonize other planets. There are already several private companies (most notably SpaceX) that are actively working towards establishing colonies on the moon and, eventually, other planets. Right now, space travel is still extremely dangerous and the means of propelling a ship to interplanetary velocity is incredibly inefficient. This is going to change. <br><br>###The Short Term<br><br>* By the time a child growing up today is old enough to have their own children, there will be colonies on the moon and Mars.<br><br>* By the time that grandchild is growing up, there will be colonies on Mars, the moon and at least one other planet.<br><br>* By the time that great grandson or great granddaughter is growing up, there will be hundreds of colonies on dozens if not hundreds of planets and moons.<br><br>###The Long Term<br><br>* At some point, humanity will have to decide whether or not to prolong a person’s life using technology. The same technology that is used to prolong the life of pet cats and dogs can be used on humans. In addition, there will be technologies such as replacement organs with miniature Propeller Turbines that will use the body’s natural fluids to generate a vortex of air that pulls in nutrient rich blood, pushing waste out. This would allow a human to live for centuries and potentially walk around in an old person’s body well into their hundreds. It’s not too difficult to predict that a significant percentage of the population in these colonies is going to choose to live for centuries.<br><br>* You would think that with centuries to live, people would have enough personal growth to where they wouldn’t want to keep walking around in old bodies. You would be wrong. With the amount of money that it’s going to take to get to these colonies and the amount of work that’s going to be involved in settling them, it’s a good bet that only the ultra rich are going to be around to take advantage of these technologies. The good news is that there is already a sub-culture on Earth of people that enjoy living in and restoring old vehicles, houses and furniture. There’s already a whole sub-culture of people that enjoy walking around in old people’s bodies. They’re just called “old people.” <br><br>* If you lived in Earth’s past any time before the second World War, you would have thought the future was absolutely fantastic and you must be living in the most exciting time in all of human history. You would have had the ability to run for President if you wanted. You would have had access to healthcare and a wide variety of drugs that would allow you to treat a wide variety of health problems. If you were gay, you would only live in a society that allowed you to exist. If you were a woman, not only would you be allowed to vote, but you would have a wide variety of career choices. You would be able to go at least 50 miles an hour on a motorcycle, you would have a wide variety of drugs that would allow you to treat depression and other mental health problems, you would have a wide variety of treatments for a wide variety of diseases, you would have access to a wide variety of technologies that wouldn’t have even been a dream for our most brilliant scientists from the past. If on top of that, you had the ability to prolong your lifespan for hundreds of years, you would absolutely be living in the most exciting time in all of human history. This is what the future is going to be like. And in the colonies, this is going to be the normal everyday life of the ultra rich. <br><br>* Now imagine that you get to live in one of the most fascinating times in human history. You get to hang out with the most interesting people in history. You get to watch the development of entire planets. You get to see all the wonders that humanity is going to explore. You get to watch humanity make its greatest achievements. And then, one day, you find out that the one thing that defines you as a human is your lifespan. You live for hundreds, even thousands, of years, while the creature that defines yourself is only capable of living for a hundred years or so. Do you start to feel different from these creatures? Do you start to feel like they are inferior to you in some way? Do you start to see yourself as a different species than them? It’s really not too far a stretch to imagine that the answer to all of these questions would be “yes.” <br><br>* Fast forward a thousand years or so and it’s entirely possible that there are two species of humans living in the colonies: the ultra rich that have found ways to live for thousands of years, and the colonists that work for the ultra rich. <br><br>* The ultra rich, who make up a small percentage of the total population of the colonies, live for thousands of years. They hang around and watch history being made. They see the rise and fall of civilizations. They become fascinated by their own species and begin studying them like they are some sort of animal in a zoo. The ultra rich make up their own species: *Homo Futurus*. <br><br>* The common colonists make up the other *98%* of the population of the colonies. They live and die on the colonies. They see very little of the universe beyond their home planet. They have nowhere to escape to when the civilization they call home collapses. They are dependent on *Homo Futurus* for their survival. They make up the other species: *Homo Colonus*. <br><br>* Fast forward another thousand years or two. At some point, it’s going to become obvious that there are two species of humans. It may become apparent that one species is more intelligent than the other, one species is stronger than the other, one species has a better sense of humor than the other, one species has better teeth and vision than the other, one species has a more complex set of social skills than the other. Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that one is better than the other in *every* way. Let’s assume that the rich are better than the colonists in every way, from strength to intelligence to sense of humor to teeth to vision. <br><br>* Is one species better than the other? Is one species more worthy of existence than the other? Is one species more evolved than the other? <br><br>* It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that the answer to all of these questions is “yes.”<br><br>###The Dilemma<br><br>* Humanity is going to explore the universe. At least one star system, possibly several.<br>* Humanity will find other planets that can support life.<br>* On these planets, humanity will establish colonies.<br>* Over time, these colonies will grow and become their own civilizations.<br>* These civilizations will grow and become their own nations.<br>* These nations will grow and eventually form the United States of the Cosmos.<br>* The United States of the Cosmos will be the greatest nation humanity has ever known.<br>* Humanity will explore the universe and see all the wonders that the universe has to offer.<br><br>And at the end of it all, the question is going to be: What does it mean to be Human?<br><br>What does it mean to be an American?