Where We Have Been, and Where Are We Going?

This is incredibly fascinating and even if it's not stuff you THINK interests or concerns you, I really recommend you spend five minutes with it. There is so much going on in research and development - we can't grasp the magnitude of the changes in store. I found this on the MSNBC Technology & Science page. Start at "return to the past" and then just start clicking the "next" button. This part goes through a pretty accurate "human family tree" based on the best current fossil and genetic evidence. Once you get up to the present (and on to the future), it becomes pretty weirdly and wildly speculative (but that's the whole POINT of this), and there is a lot of possible truth to it. Genetics and robotics (particularly nano technology) are running wild and our abilities to do some things that seem like science fiction are either here now, or right around the corner. It's a brave new world and most of us can't see it because: a) the changes are happening so quickly b) there is an overload of information, making it nearly impossible for average humans to absorb what's going on and c) we are just busy living our own lives. Imagine how a human being would feel if he or she were suddenly transported from 1805 to today. They would feel like they had entered an incredibly alien world. They would have absolutely NO frame of reference for any of the technology they would be surrounded by. There have been more technological advances in those 200 years than in the entire history of mankind up until then. And the advances of the next two hundred will continue in this geometric increase. Do you wish you could be around to see it? Well here's part of the strangeness - you might be! Take a look.