Ad inteligence of humankind. Despite the may-be-limited nature of inteligence of individual of human species, the total one may be increasing also thanks to more effective sharing among units (individuals) or possible bio-tech innovations. But that was already mentioned above..

To Afonso:
ad Kardashev civilizations fighting for system/galaxy. Well, i guess the annihilation of current concurent civs is not the only way how to achieve the dominance in system. Civs are being rising in various ways; along with the elimination of concurents let’s mention also integration. I don’t see that global civilization would be taking place by total war of dominant tribe against all others but rather in different ways. The same rules may apply even in broader scale.
In other worlds: it’s not neccesaire if the galactic Kardashev Type III civ will be Humans OR Vulcans but maybe it is question of single Human-Vulcan Kardashev Type III civilization.

Ad inteligence once more: The darwinistic selections on the basis of inteligence does not necesarilly means that inteligent people would have more children. It is also about stuff like position in the societal hierarchy or the power you keep among others. Or maybe the level of your influence among others. And still, the political or philosophical leaders are at least in the upper hlaf of the intleigence scale (mostly).

Like any implant, I had assumed FDA approval would be required, but forgot about this recent report you linked to. Interesting that the FDA stands by its approval of the microchip technology- there are certainly enough question marks to study the device further.

You can bet though that if a way is found to prevent the transmitter/cancer link, there are those who would have a cell phone implanted in an instant, if only to be the first one on their block with the latest thing. Even when legitimate fears were raised a few years ago about cell phones and cancer, cell phone sales continued to skyrocket. For many, it was a risk/benefits decision, and the benefits clearly won

It’s surprising how many people don’t mind the role of guinea pig for something they feel they can’t live without.

PhysOrg.com Dec. 6, 2007

*************************

University of Utah researchers have
discovered genetic evidence that
human evolution is speeding up —
and has not halted or proceeded at a
constant rate, as had been thought
– indicating that humans on
different continents are becoming
increasingly…

http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=7583&m=25748

The first leap I mention are implantable cell phones. Rather than singularity integration, what I imagine they will be at first is something far more rudimentary, perhaps akin to a cochlea implant with a wireless beneath-the-skin touchpad located on the arm of your choice. Nothing as grandiose as a mind-machine- just a phone you couldn’t lose.

As for the second leap, I suppose I’m as guilty as everyone else who speculates about alien life. I’m assuming at least a few intelligent alien species out there would also have the desire to “improve” themselves by biological and mechanical means, whereas they might all be perfectly content to live life on a more natural level, with no desire at all to tinker with their “alienness.” But if there are other intelligent species that embrace technology the way we do, then no, I don’t believe it’s a large leap to imagine they might face the same temptation we do to apply that technology inward and use it to become much more than they are without it.

Curiosity about the way things work and the desire to experiment and explore might indeed be unique human traits not shared by any other life form anywhere.

If any/all intelligent alien species out there are living without advanced technology, however, then projects like SETI are doomed to failure, which could very well be the case. We do not, as you state, know anything at all about how aliens reason, since we don’t know any aliens.

@david: interesting thoughts and view points.
But with regard to the first part (intelligence) I think we should not confuse the need for a (greater) development, driven by selective pressure, and the ability to utilize more resources, even with the same level of intelligence.

Yes, we developed spears, bows and arrows, and the like with roughly the same level of intelligence as space ships and nuclear bombs. Apparently, to achive those things, we don’t need a lot more brain power, just time and experience (learning).

Our present day environment does NOT select for greater brain capacities (unfortunately?): highly intelligent people don’t get more children, nor do they live much longer than average or dumber people. Apparently it is not a selective advantage for survival anymore.

The way it looks we will have to do, and we can do, with what we have for intelligence. And something similar may be true for other intelligences. It is definitely not a logical given that a ‘good thing’ keeps developing indefinitely.

Milan Cirkovic is a Serbian futurist with some interesting ideas on SETI… here’s his latest…

On The Timescale Forcing in Astrobiology
Authors: B. Vukotic, M.M. Cirkovic
(Submitted on 10 Dec 2007)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.1508

Abstract: We investigate the effects of correlated global regulation mechanisms, especially Galactic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), on the temporal distribution of hypothetical inhabited planets, using simple Monte Carlo numerical experiments. Starting with recently obtained models of planetary ages in the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ), we obtain that the times required for biological evolution on habitable planets of the Milky Way are highly correlated. These results run contrary to the famous anti-SETI anthropic argument of Carter, and give tentative support to the ongoing and future SETI observation projects.

…in sum Brandon Carter argued that because the odds of life developing are unknown and possibly random then it’s very strange that it has existed on Earth almost as long as Earth has existed although the two events are seemingly independent – therefore the odds are that life is rare and we’re alone. Or so he argues with some statistical mathematics.

What Cirkovic has done is argue for an astrophysical cause of correlation between life’s evolution and the evolution of stars and planets – thus invalidating Carter’s assumption of independence.

So what does that mean for SETI? And METI? In galaxies of old, stable civilisations we might expect a benign galactic milieu… but amongst a bunch of newcomers like us???

If higher intelligence means more energy needed to drive that intelligence then there might be a plateau at which it levels out. We are already smart enough to develop spears, bows and arrows, guns, and such for defense. Within the natural world against non-tool makers it’s pretty effective. In such a world the higher cost in food needed might have outweighed any benefit.

But food isn’t such a big issue in the developed world any more. We can spare a few more calories towards brainpower. We are also living in an environment where brain power now has more value than just getting food, defending against predators, and providing basic shelter.

With the change in environment what we have observed in the past might no longer hold true. Especially if we start making changes to ourselves intensionally.

——-

Agreed with putting METI on hold. It’s like jumping into a pond head first without first knowing how deep the water is. It’s probably safe, but unpleasant things can still happen.

About the only thing we can say is that there probably are no berserkers out there. If there were we wouldn’t be here. We are currently a much bigger threat to ourselves than aliens.

So many interesting thoughts and view points.

Mark makes a valid point about a Technological Singularity, how it could come about and how it can affect ETI issues. What if a culture turns inward, into a virtual environment? What if the resulting post-singular intelligence turns all of the material in the Solar System into a computronium Dyson Shell around the Sun? Would it deem the outside Universe useful anymore? Could it control its star enough to control expansion into a red giant? Are K-Type II civs of this type? When the time came, would it upload itself into another Universe/dimension?

So many questions. Excellent thought experiment!