Still, there is a big difference between being sympathetic to ideas in general and accepting them wholeheartedly. So, if you are a transhumanist (or even if you're not), how skeptical or critical are you of its major futurist themes?
We have just posted a new reader poll (see sidebar) asking whether you agree with the following statements:
- By 2100, robots will do nearly all physical work.
- Uploading of human personalities to computer substrates is bound to happen.
- At some point, healthy human lifespans will be extended indefinitely.
- Emerging technologies will produce a post-scarcity economy within 50 years.
- Some people currently preserved cryonically will be revived successfully.
- We or our descendants will colonize the galaxy within a few hundred years.
- AI will be smarter than humans like humans are smarter than goats.
- Human/machine 'cyborgs' will be common by the end of this century.
- The first person to live a thousand years has already been born.
- A technological singularity is certain to occur before the middle of this century.
Some of these things may happen and some may not. Which do you think are most likely?