50 Comments
- Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The first step towards an advanced civilization is eliminationg religion. This is why the USA will stay stuck where it is when everyone else advances.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Until we return to energy.
- DKasler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tons of theory... but on the whole, one of the coolest things I've ever read.
- ziggr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reads like a Stephen Baxter story. Fun stuff.
- Nibi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0digg. I didn't find this depressing in the least. If we survive the next few hundred years we may be going somewhere.
- bunzai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0meet George Jetson...not in our generation...boring read but interesting. digg it.
- citizensagainst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think I saw this guy on Maury Povich's year-end predictions last year.
Spooooky! - racerxyz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Best science fiction I've read in a while. It's amazing how such fringe thought is injected into the mainstream.
- modestmelody, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good read. Definitely Dugg. I still think that some of those technologies are rather optimisitc, but theoretically, it all sounds quite beautiful doesn't it?
- michaelg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Awesome, I love Michio Kaku, he's an uber smart guy.
- mr_mechanics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Those of us in the physics crowd commonly refer to Dr. Michio Kaku as mr. discovery since he is one of the only people inclined to go on tv and make huge sweeping speculations. Although I do enjoy reading his works and letting my mind drift into fantasy, I look around myself at the current state of the world and come back to reality. His writ tings are meant to be thought provoking and shouldn't be taken on faith just because he is a university professor.
- mercano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0<Civ4Rimshot>I got to Future Tech 8, myself.</Civ4Rimshot>
- SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0so thats what those black things were in 2001...it all makes sense now.
- xedeon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0read this it will WoW you..
http://www.mkaku.org/articles/physics_of_alien_civs.shtml - raano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0we advance until we piss off Apophis, and then we get knocked back to the stone age...
- t35t0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"But already, we can see the seeds of a Type I civilization...even the beginnings of a planetary culture (via mass media, TV, rock music, and Hollywood films)."
Someone kill me before MTV and rap music takes over the world.
/me gags - xedeon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sorry it turned out that M. Kaku was talking about the same thing, but this article is more detailed
http://www.mkaku.org/articles/physics_of_alien_civs.shtml - mckirkus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you're read Kurzweil then you know this guy is WAYYY off. Genetics, nanotech, and robotics are going to change things much sooner than this guy thinks. We could become a type II civilization within fifty years if he's right.
- ObligatoryDeath, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where's my flying car!?! oh and by the way, this is a fake interview. They just took this guys essay off his site, broke it up, and inserted questions. and the guys essay, it was on digg about a month ago, without the whole fake interview spin on it.
LAME!!! - Nullifidian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you enjoyed the interview and want to read more Michio Kaku
http://www.mkaku.org/articles/
enjoy! - NickDouglas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Kurzweil thinks we're close enough to Type II that he, Kurzweil, could live forever. That's an optimistic view, intentionally overstated.
Also, obligatorydeath is right. - ZombieLordzero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0lol, who wants to bet that in civ-5, a goal of victory will be to become a type-1 civilization?
- funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Summary of the article:
If you think us finding a new Jupiter sized planet every other week is cool, you ain't seen nothing yet. We have this really cool new telescope that will cost billions to put into space and make sure that NASA engineers have jobs for the next 7 years. We might even find earth-like planets in other solar systems, which will blow your socks off.
Maybe there is something to some of this. I'm not convince. I think a bunch of it is speculation and overactive scientific imaginations *cough*.. *****. I think that these goals are self-serving goals (colonize the moon, interplanetary exploration, etc.) for physicists (esp. ones that work for big space agencies).
"There are roadblocks to an emerging Type III civilization." How do we even know if our civilization is at a level 0? Shouldn't we transgress further before we say *sure* statements like that.
I think we can glean some good things from this. I think that Dr. Kaku would agree with me if we would stop the wars (there are about 30 wars going on at any given time), the human race would have a greater chance of survival. There are bigger, more immediate problems right now than space exploration. (I apologize for being so skeptical and being underwhelmed with the article's "surprising detail".) This news is more than one year old, but still can spark controversy. - dvishcharm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0human race has invented the exponential effect which in my opinion will shoot past lvl III civ in much shorter mount of time the guy who was talking bout nano tech is with me on this out creations tho they might kill us all in the process will rocket us into the upper folds of tech and well i doubt when we get that far we will understand it unless we turn into Borg/moralitish beings thus becoming the police of the universe with the long life span and such creative innovations that the ever expanding universe would become molded into our liking. and as far as energy we will b making stars and wont b relying on them for energy. D'v'ish
- CrackHappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you would like to read some fiction specifically focused on Von Neumann probes, I would recommend the following story from localroger of Kuro5hin.org fame:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/12/21/17846/757 - EliGottlieb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is plain old science-fiction, with technobabble.
No digg. - baltakatei, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Manifold Time
Manifold Space
Manifold Origin
Horribly depressing but very thoughtful books I read this summer by Stephen Baxter.
The Big Chill is quite a depressing thought. Imagine that an intelligent being of the future may require thousands of millennia just to complete a single thought. Atoms themselves would succumb to entropy and break apart spontaneously into their constituent parts.
Yet, what's even more depressing is that we as a Type 0 civilization could choke and die on our own pollution. :/ - vermin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Umm, if you haven't noticed there are quite a few other places that are just as radical with their religion as the bible belt. America's not the only country with religious fundamentalists.
- ubiquityxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Technobabble and science-fiction?
What are you smoking?
Good read - opens doors to new and fresh thought - definite DIGG.
If you want more on Kaku's description on the classification of civilization + some string theory, I recommend his book - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385477058/104-4652161-5619114?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance - dave_colorado, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Someone kill me before MTV and rap music takes over the world."-t35t0r
AGREED!!!! - AminoSC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I adore Michio Kaku. Every paper he's written is just as much a page turner. I agree that religion needs to be dumped. It's like Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. It blows my mind that there is a debate about including intelligent design in school curriculum. The religious right wing, including Bush and all his cronies should be fired. The whole world was held back when Bush was elected. It's a shame. And for the record. I'm an American that was born and raised and still lives in the deep south. There are many Southerners that do not like Bush and did not vote for him.
Sorry for the rant!
AminoSC
Lancaster, South Carolina - RodeoRobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's a fun read. I like speculation about the future, but I still think Michio Kaku is a bit of a nut when is comes to speculation, and it shouldn't be taken as valid science.
I'm also afraid I don't see the antagonism between religeon and science. If anything, humanity needs to come to a greater understanding of God in order to progress scienfically, technologically, and morally. - funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@Darph.Bobo
That is an interesting quote, that we need to eliminate religion to move toward an advanced civilization. That could be taken in many ways. Is religion something we need to overcome to advance? (Is it a stumbling block in scientific endeavors.)
Also, this could be a quote advocating atheism. Are you implying that people philosophic view should not be in conflict with science? Do you have other ideas in what you meant by quoting that person? - yamix00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This ties in nicely with the "'U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather'" and "Armageddon 2029. NASA Plans For Asteroid Deflection." articles.
Interesting. - t35t0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The problem is that science and some religions don't mix. While other religions (e.g. hinduism) have no problems with what physics reveals about the universe.
- AminoSC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Religion should be eliminated because of all great minds out there that are brainwashed by these fairy tales. We need everyone on the planet the put all there energy in the truth, not the tooth fairy.
- SlappyMc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah this made front page a while back :)
- nocre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What's wrong with a little theory? We must always look far beyond the horizon if we've any hope of getting there. If we cease dreaming, we cease evolving.
I digg it. It was interesting. And while anything reflecting the sheer insignificance of our lives is bound to carry at least the twinge of depression, I received it well. I couldn't begin to tell you what book it was, but I remember it beginning with something along the lines of:
"We are nothing more than microscopic, multicelluar specks living on a pale blue dot which lies amongst millions and millions of other pale blue dots." - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I wasn't advocating atheism, which is actively anti-religion. I'm saying we should get to a point where there's no religion OR atheism, that the thought just doesn't cross our minds at all. But for the most part, religion does hold us back.
For example, a certain group in the USA who can't get married yet should not have to live like second-class citizens because someone (not God) who wrote a VERY OLD BOOK thought it was a bad idea... - motionblur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Until we return to energy."
You are correct sir! - RodeoRobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ah, yes. Mumbojumbo like Mercy, Justice, Charity, Love, Forgiveness, and Peace. They're all out-dated religeous concepts that we should throw away in favor of a morality dicatated by an enlightened humanistic technocracy.
With no God (or Tao-personified, if you prefer), no source of good will, humans are finally free to explore the universe without the guilt that comes from not performing the cumbersome religeous requirements of sacrificing yourself for strangers (mercy), setting right what is wrong (justice), loving despicable criminals, being loved by people you don't particularly care for, or fearing reprisal from any fictitious moral being.
Survival of the fittest, I say. 'cause that's the evolutionary way. - bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is theoretical physics.
Why all these confusions? what level is digg?
I'm glad someone made these classifications.
These classifications doesn't have to apply to
Earth. If there is another civ out there and
they are planet hopping, then we can guess from Kaku's theory that they must be a Type III. Then we can deduce from that they have conquered or used up their planet and is looking for a new place to live.
Seems logical because one would planet hope when life depends on it. You wouldn't find planet hopping Type 0 or Type I. - funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Elrazer, "I wasn't advocating atheism, which is actively anti-religion."
I don't agree with that particular statement. What I've heard atheists say is that atheist says what they don't believe in. There are very vocal atheists who attack religions, but there are also very vocal fundamentalists, too.
Those are the types of people who yell at the top of their lungs that everyone else is wrong.
Do each of those sides represent what people who are tolerant of theist and atheist ideas, irregard of their own?
"I'm saying we should get to a point where there's no religion OR atheism, that the thought just doesn't cross our minds at all."
I think you are advocating religious tolerrance here and in not so many words transcending religion. I am reading this correctly or are own beliefs influencing what I am reading?
"But for the most part, religion does hold us back." That's a sticky issue there. In my experience, the USA society is built in a way that allows changes to occur slowly. Many of our (U.S.) customs in business (loans should be payed back in 30 days) and society in general (you have a day of rest) are given by the Bible. Those are traditions that we interact upon. Thre are newer traditions such as most stores will take cash, checks, and credit cards. I'm a bit off subject here, but bear with me.
Now the Bible has many traditions in it and those traditions maintain a core of similar values (that do sometimes conflict between the Bible Books). Tradition is another way of keeping things consistent within society. Consistency is something law tries to maintain in the consistent application of laws in court cases.
If there was no tradition we would have to invent them out of thin air. Also, a legal system that is inconsistent in the way it rules is unfair to everyone and you would have to start from the point of is killing wrong in self-defence or is murder wrong. Which crime is more wrong and grievious, etc.
In sum, I think that religion does some to maintain tradition and the slow orderly progression of our society. I think that it wouldn't be a bad idea for our focus to change from religion to philosophy. For instance, I see that religions don't have a concept of environmentalism that is already quite important to societies.
I appologize for this for being so long and for my ranting, but I think I agree with you on a level. Also I think I might have brought up irrelevant issues. Sorry. - RodeoRobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0...Sorry 'bout the rant. It's late here.
- Darph.Bobo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"The first step towards an advanced civilization is eliminationg religion. This is why the USA will stay stuck where it is when everyone else advances."
posted by Elranzer (0) - Rounin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I thought MacGyver killed Apophis.
- pwallroth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Who cares if its a dupe damnit if enough people digg it again who F-ing gives a *****.
- hakz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I swear this is a dupe. About type I Type II and type III civilisations right?
- b-rent, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0@hakz
Yes, I swear I read the same thing a while back.


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