Stephen Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution"

22 Nov 09

eunico do

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12 Oct 09

Adam Bohannon

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30 Jul 09

bradly_okuley_healthinfo bradly_okuley_healthinfo

Stephen Hawking interview

Stephen Hawking

19 Jul 09

Tuomas Saarela

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15 Jul 09

David Warlick

But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA. "At first," he continues "these changes will be confined to the repair of genetic defects, like cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy. These are controlled by single genes, and so are fairly easy to identify, and correct. Other qualities, such as intelligence, are probably controlled by a large number of genes. It will be much more difficult to find them, and work out the relations between them. Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression."

14 Jul 09

Graham Perrin

2009

10 Jul 09

Jimmy Breeze

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This means Hawking says that we have entered a new phase of evolution. "At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information."
"I think it is legitimate to
take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as
well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race," Hawking said.
2 more annotations...
- But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA. "At first," he continues "these changes will be confined to the repair of genetic defects, like cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy. These are controlled by single genes, and so are fairly easy to identify, and correct. Other qualities, such as intelligence, are probably controlled by a large number of genes. It will be much more difficult to find them, and work out the relations between them. Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression."
- If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets. But this will be done, Hawking believes, with intelligent machines based on mechanical and electronic components, rather than macromolecules, which could eventually replace DNA based life, just as DNA may have replaced an earlier form of life.

09 Jul 09

quintoelefante

07 Jul 09

evolution human information

06 Jul 09

Takuya Homma

Pavel Zemliansky

- Pavel Zemliansky on 2009-07-06
  
  so, is he saying that the information we consume, the information that we become, changing who we are? interesting.

Bret Zawilski

- Bret Zawilski on 2009-07-06
  
  The proliferation of these little buttons is amazing. The interconnectedness just grows more intricate. Also, this is a first experimentation with annotation features of Diigo.
- Lamarck Jean on 2009-07-14
  
  yea
"I think it is legitimate to
take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as
well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race," Hawking said.
1 more annotations...
- In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, "an external transmission phase," where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. "But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage," Hawking says, "has grown enormously. Some people would use the term, evolution, only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes."
  - Bret Zawilski on 2009-07-06
    
    Incredible. This just raises all sorts of questions and possibilities in my mind. With the lessening of natural selection pressures, the interplay of technology, information, and life becomes even more prominent. What does this really say about the role of information in our lives?

04 Jul 09

Maluvia Haseltine

Discusses the concept of "Self Designed Evolution"

Sociology ConsciousEvolution

John Rodrigues

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Robert Vigliotti

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Dylan Hogg

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Andreas Auwärter

In the Daily Galaxy: "Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the useful information in our DNA, has probably changed by only a few million bits. So the rate of biological evolution in humans, Stephen Hawking points out in his Life in the Universe lecture, is about a bit a year. "By contrast," Hawking says, "there are about 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing of the order of a hundred billion bits of information. Of course, the great majority of this information is garbage, and no use to any form of life. But, even so, the rate at which useful information can be added is millions, if not billions, higher than with DNA."

Thanx to @JulianEdward pointing me to this!

Society Hanwkins Menschenbild Understanding_of_Humanity

03 Jul 09

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Erudite

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