A car built early in the 20th century, and a car built now, about 100 years later, isn't an extremely radical shift; sure there have been changes, but the concept is the same, and all we have done is improve/build over, right? Hold that thought.
A prokaryote (Eubacteria) at the dawn of life, the Archean era of Precambrian time, is, in fact, the same concept as a multicellular organism such as the relatively recent Hydra; it's the same concept just improved or built over.
Now forget the car analogy, and move to AI (artificially intelligent) creatures. A simple electronic robot on wheels hits an obstruction and "learns" that it mustn't do that again. It stores this information and now has an updated map of its immediate area. A century from now, AI may look radically different, but the concept will still be the same, only improved/built over.
Of course these improvements can be drastic as well. The discovery of semi-conductors and the theoretical discovery of commercially viable superconductors in the future, could, if brought down (or up) to "human" scale, correspond with the drastic change in the way organisms reproduced, from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction. Meaning the recent development in robotics allowing two similar robots to exchange the information that each has gained, which is what mating is at its most basic level, if conjoined maybe with the power of superconductors, just might be an equivalent drastic change.
What am i getting at? You'll see.
I remember reading about this in HG Wells' The Time Machine, and I'll use that analogy here. Imagine if there were 2-dimensional creatures, let's call them the "flatties". Now, these creatures have absolutely no concept of height but, if they had complex brains like ours, they could theorize about the possibility of other dimensions.
Article comments
1 - sr
SURVEY SAYS FORD MOTOR CO.
2 - Anonymii
I am a very scientific person in nature but with deep belief in God, however you call Him. Unfortunately [IMHO], it seems that the whole point of "science" since Renaissance period is not to define life and the universe that contains it, but disprove the very existence of God. I have carefully read the post and, with all due respect, it does nothing but introduce another level of indirect complexity by stating that God is an engineer with supreme technological knowledge but no knowledge of His own creator. Correct me if I am wrong, but this post described something that closely resembles 21st century human beings. I tend to never fall into the trap of debating why I do believe in God, but the answer lies in the quotation you made about brain being so complex that it is incapable of understanding its own complexity. If something so fantastically complex can be created by pure chance, I and all people for that matter would never have to work for the rest of our lives. We would only have to continue staring at the empty air and wait for something becoming from nothing. The very action of writing this comment makes me aware of the incredible world He gave us as a gift. This world might be an illusion as well as infinity of the universe is such a ridiculous concept. Evolution is true, but only to the certain extent. If it was we would evolve into super intelligent beings in the past few millenniums. Yet we are no smarter than our ancestors. Nature and natural selection... Is it me, or are those only names for you know who... And the last but not least, we will continue to refine AI and refine biotechnology as well. However, we will never achieve to create life. If what today's scientists create shows signs of life, that doesn't mean that they gave it life. If it meant then they could as well give the gift of life to rocks or air.
Long story short, I am not an intrusive person by nature, so my comment is not meant to even touch your personal beliefs and theories, but it is worth noting that the chair you are seating on would never be there if someone didn't make it first.
3 - Jet in Columbus
I'm almost afraid to ask what the purpose of page two is??????????
4 - Kasey
We are just us and no theories what so ever. There are no others it's just you and no others. Others are not you and they are nothing but your own illusion, and you need to conquor your own fear to accept you are on your own ,and then you start realising that you are truly on your own. Just embrace your lonely death and the answer will natuarally come to you without any foolish seeking of research or study when your very last gasp arrives.
5 - Dr Dreadful
It's not often you meet a solipsist on these threads. That was good advice I just gave myself.