Cosmic Future - Bryant McGill

# Cosmic Future ## Definition **Cosmic Future** refers to the immense interval of physical and evolutionary possibility lying beyond the present human era. It supplies the deep-time horizon against which extinction, posthuman development, machine intelligence and interstellar expansion acquire consequences far larger than one century. ## Conceptual relationships [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] · [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] · [[wiki/Cosmic View|Cosmic View]] ## Martin Rees research route [[research/Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future|Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future]] supplies a primary quotation dossier connecting this concept to Rees's work on cosmology, technological risk, machine intelligence, posthuman evolution and deep time. ## Article and collection routes - [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] - [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts  > “We need to extend our time-horizons. Especially, we need deeper and wider awareness that far more time lies ahead than has elapsed up till now.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Deep Time And The Far Future, Edge, 2011* [[reminders/Deep Time/More Time Lies Ahead Than Has Ever Passed by Martin Rees|More Time Lies Ahead Than Has Ever Passed by Martin Rees]] > “It’s these space-faring adventurers, not those of us contentedly adapted to life on Earth, who will spearhead the post-human era. It’s perhaps in deep space—not on Earth, or even on Mars—that non-biological ‘brains’ may develop powers that humans can’t even imagine.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Could space-going billionaires be the vanguard of a cosmic revolution?, The Guardian, 2022* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Nonbiological Brains May Awaken in Deep Space by Martin Rees|Nonbiological Brains May Awaken in Deep Space by Martin Rees]] > “If we can get through this century, then there’s a huge future of far more marvelous evolution beyond.” > **— Martin Rees**, *The Astronomer Royal, Nautilus, 2014* [[reminders/Deep Time/Beyond This Century Lies a Marvelous Evolutionary Future by Martin Rees|Beyond This Century Lies a Marvelous Evolutionary Future by Martin Rees]] > “Even educated people who accept evolution tend to think that we humans are the endpoint, the culmination. But I think as astronomers, we can’t take that view because we know that the future is at least as long. The Earth will exist for another six billion years before the Sun dies, and the universe may go on expanding forever. So we should think of ourselves as a stage.” > **— Martin Rees**, *The Future of Us, with Sir Martin Rees, StarTalk, 2018* [[reminders/Deep Time/Humanity Is a Stage Not the Endpoint of Evolution by Martin Rees|Humanity Is a Stage Not the Endpoint of Evolution by Martin Rees]] > “It won't be humans who witness the sun's demise: it will be entities as different from us as we are from a bug.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Templeton Prize 2011 acceptance speech, The Guardian, 2011* [[reminders/Machine Succession/The Sun's Death Will Be Witnessed by Beings Unlike Us by Martin Rees|The Sun's Death Will Be Witnessed by Beings Unlike Us by Martin Rees]]   > “We live at what could be a defining moment for the cosmos, not just for our Earth.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2003, Our Final Hour* [[reminders/Civilization/A Defining Moment for the Cosmos by Martin Rees|A Defining Moment for the Cosmos by Martin Rees]] > What happens on Earth may determine the long-term future of life throughout the cosmos. > **— Adapted from Martin Rees**, *2003, In the Matrix, Edge* [[reminders/Civilization/Earth May Decide the Long-Term Future of the Cosmos by Martin Rees|Earth May Decide the Long-Term Future of the Cosmos by Martin Rees]]