How will the world end

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I just read the NY times article, and I'm not quite sure I understand...I'm sure you know more, so let me know if any of this sounds right.

As humans with intelligence and technology, we anticipate that some day we'll have computers that have tremendous processing power. So tremendous that we'd be able to run simulations of humanity's entire existence. At that point we realize if we can do something that extraordinary, it's really not extraordinary at all and we may just be a simulation ourselves. Our ability to create this suggests that we may just be a part of the same thing in the first place.

Is that the idea?

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds more like a matter of attitude than a realization. I still couldn't build an internal combustion engine from scratch and it's been around a century since the first one was made. They seem extraordinary to me. Every time a helicopter is in the sky it's hard not to look. The incredible precision of SLR cameras strikes me with awe. I'll put the miracles of science and technology up against the miracles of religion any day. The industrial revolution was very recent, historically speaking. We've only just begun. Who knows how many ages of miracles we'll go through?

Aside from which, so what if we were a simulation? Why would our reality cease to exist just because it was an artificial one? Why is the "off" switch suddenly flipped? It wouldn't; it would just have its nature changed. I guess that may be arguing semantics, but since a semantic definition is the one being offered in this scenario, it's a more than fair way to respond.

By comparison, if robots eventually become something like self-aware, does that mean that they will spontaneously die and their self-awareness will simultaneously cease instantly because they will realize their reality is akin to a hoax and they are not really alive at all? Who's to even define the reality of life, or be the arbiter to say what it is and isn't, at that point?

[plomahaaaa]

This is not necessarily the "end of the world" but a description of the last days (from Bible Prophecy) which we are currently in. Things in the middle east(with a focus on Israel) will come to a head. The Bible predicts how the Jews would be dispersed out of their country, persecuted and then be returned to it. This fulfillment of prophecy is quite obvious. The Jews have also still retained their native ethnic dialect of hebrew. There will be worldwide pestulence and falling away from the church. The rapture will occur, where those that believe in Christ will be taken up with him to heaven before the tribulation period. This will not be a time you want to experience. The antichrist will deceive many by performing miracles and other feats to deceive the people left on earth. Those who do not take the mark of the beast will not be able to buy, trade, or sell. The technologies for this mark are already here, aka implanted RFID chips etc. It isn't known exactly if this will be the mark but it is surely possible.

Christ will return again to the temple mount, defeat the antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon then establish his millenial reign (1000 years).

Check out http://www.thebereancall.org/ . These guys are the best at searching and checking scripture to see if things going on in the world are following scripture or not. They have tons of info on Prophecy as well.

[KilgoreTrout]

It'll be just like my toaster oven. There will be a pleasant "ding" and then that's all she wrote.

[suppasonic]

[ QUOTE ]
I just read the NY times article, and I'm not quite sure I understand...I'm sure you know more, so let me know if any of this sounds right.

As humans with intelligence and technology, we anticipate that some day we'll have computers that have tremendous processing power. So tremendous that we'd be able to run simulations of humanity's entire existence. At that point we realize if we can do something that extraordinary, it's really not extraordinary at all and we may just be a simulation ourselves. Our ability to create this suggests that we may just be a part of the same thing in the first place.

Is that the idea?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. And this is the exact story/premise for the movie "The Thirteenth Floor" , the cover of which I posted earlier in this thread.

[schwza]

i tried to start a new thread to talk about the nyt article but NT decided in his infinite wisdom it'd be better to leave it here interspersed with sun spots and mitochondrial eve. he's right, that'll be much easier to follow. anyway, i said:

i think it's a great article, and pretty convincing. one minor question i'd have is whether these simulations would need to be able to be not just simulate our brains but also powerful enough to simulate all physical processes on earth. (the wind blows, that makes the leaves move, that makes the branch bend back, that makes the shadow move, etc). it's not enough to just have computers that can simulate our brains because you need a lot of extra computing power to figure out what the physical enviornment looks like and make sure it stays consistent.

if you're talking about figuring out all of that by doing computations on the subatomic level (instead of "the wind blows" it's "quark does this, neutrino does that"), that's way more computing power than just our brains. especially because you have to be able to do it with virutally no lag, or the physical universe would fall apart. i guess you could fudge a lot of stuff when humans aren't paying super close attention but that seems kind of like a cop out.

i don't know if that really affects the argument or just pushes back the time when a computer can do these things by a chunk of time. there's no particular reason to think that at some point computers couldn't be made fast enough to do all of the subatomic calculations needed in super-small amounts of time.

[ICMoney]

[ QUOTE ]
Um, it's when Jesus comes back and the rivers of blood and the reckoning and the judging.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

[PocketZeros]

[ QUOTE ]
This is not necessarily the "end of the world" but a description of the last days (from Bible Prophecy) which we are currently in. Things in the middle east(with a focus on Israel) will come to a head. The Bible predicts how the Jews would be dispersed out of their country, persecuted and then be returned to it. This fulfillment of prophecy is quite obvious. The Jews have also still retained their native ethnic dialect of hebrew. There will be worldwide pestulence and falling away from the church. The rapture will occur, where those that believe in Christ will be taken up with him to heaven before the tribulation period. This will not be a time you want to experience. The antichrist will deceive many by performing miracles and other feats to deceive the people left on earth. Those who do not take the mark of the beast will not be able to buy, trade, or sell. The technologies for this mark are already here, aka implanted RFID chips etc. It isn't known exactly if this will be the mark but it is surely possible.

Christ will return again to the temple mount, defeat the antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon then establish his millenial reign (1000 years).

Check out http://www.thebereancall.org/ . These guys are the best at searching and checking scripture to see if things going on in the world are following scripture or not. They have tons of info on Prophecy as well.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm convinced.

[Mr.WeakTight]

a couple of points from Bill Bryson's book, A short history of nearly everything.

One, to put it in perspective, trilobites existed for around 300m yrs; dinosaurs lived about 150m; humans have existed about 0.5 percent as long as trilobites. If the history of the world were smushed into a 24-hour day, we would only exist during the last few seconds.

Two, a potential cause: the volcano that sits under yellowstone national park blows about once every 600,000 years. It's been 630,000 years. if it blows the ash will block the sun around the whole planet and we'll have another ice age.

[pnazari]

not sure how accurate it is but i thought this was a pretty cool article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

[bronx bomber]

OBV not global warming if eeveryone would just turn their AC's on high