Evolution, Technology and Imagination

1
Evolution, Technology and Imagination

• Footprints in the sand!

2
Footprints in the Earth

• Footprint from Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy
  species)
• First bipedal hominid
• About 3.2 mya

3
Footprints in the Earth

• How do we know if an early ape-man or woman
  walked
  upright? An examination of certain bones
  -- a tibia (leg
  bone) or a pelvis, for example --
  can reveal the
  answer. So can fossilized
  footprints.

4
Footprints in the Earth

• The individuals had perfect two footed strides
• They indicate that the two hominids were walking
  side by side and close enough to be touching

5
Footprints in the Earth

• The footprints also look remarkably like a
  human's
• Some scientists had a hard time believing that
  they were made by Australopithecus afarensis
  (Lucy's species),

6
Time and Tool Makers

• How long did it take from the time our earliest
  ancestors walked upright until they learned to
  make tools?
• Until they learned to speak?
• Until they invented agriculture?
• Until they created the Industrial Revolution?

7
Some Helpful Websites

• Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/laeto
  li.htm
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/
• Fossilized Footprints
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution/footpr
  ints.html

8
Trip to the Moon

• 30th Anniversary of Apollo 11 1969-1999
• http//nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_
  11_30th.html

9
Trip to the Moon

• Apollo 11 view of Earth taken shortly after
  lift off on 16
  July 1969 from a distance of 180,000
  km.

10
Trip to the Moon

• This photograph shows the partly
  illuminated Earth rising over the lunar
  
  horizon.
• The Earth is approximately 400,000 km away.
  (Apollo 11, AS11-44-6552)

11
Footprints on the Moon

• Edwin Aldrin
• Apollo 11 astronaut stands facing the U.S. flag
  on the Moon.

12
Footprints on the Moon

• "That's one small step for man, one giant leap
  for mankind.
• At 1056 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, Neil
  Armstrong became the first human to set foot on
  the Moon.

13
Footprints on the Moon

• Consider how long it took from the beginning of
  the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of
  human flight?
• How long did it take from the beginning of flight
  to a landing on the moon?
• What kind of progression is involved?

14
Acceleration

• What was the CPU speed of the first personal
  computers? The Apple II and the IBM PC?
• How did the speed of the CPU increase?
• What is their speed now?

15
Acceleration

• Looking back into deep time, what did you notice
  about the time between significant events
  Walking upright, Using tools, Creating language,
  Using fire, Inventing agriculture, coming of the
  Industrial Revolution, Beginning flight,
  Exploring space, Inventing computers, Building
  computers smarter than humans

16
Ray Kurzweil and Spiritual Machines

• How life and technology evolve
• We are the technology-creating species
• Technology is advancing exponentially

17
Ray Kurzweil and Spiritual Machines

• Consider Time lines of significant events
• Billions of years for earth to form
• About two billion more for single cell life to to
  begin
• The first multicelluar plants and animals arise
  about 700 million years ago

18
Ray Kurzweil and Spiritual Machines

• Species of mammals radiate about 65mya
• Primates emerge about 10mya
• Homo sapiens arise about 500,000ya
• It took thousands of years to create very simple
  tools
• Then, time required for major advances in
  technology shrinks from thousands to hundreds of
  years ago

19
Ray Kurzweil and Spiritual Machines

• The pace of technology advancement continues
• Significant technological transformations take
  just a few years
• Moores Law Computers double in capacity and
  speed per unit cost every two years

20
Ray Kurzweil and Spiritual Machines

• Kurzweil Law of Accelerating Returns
• As order exponentially increases the time
  between salient events grows shorter

21
Kurzweil Web Sites

• Some helpful web sites
• September 19, 1999, Scientific American, article,
  Ray Kurzweil, The Coming Merging of Mind and
  Machine
• http//www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID0007EE6
  E-F71F-1C72-9B81809EC588EF21

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Kurzweil Web Sites

• The 1999 National Medal of Technology
• http//www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID000096F
  3-3821-1C75-9B81809EC588EF21
• Ray Kurzweil and Artificial Intelligence
• http//www.kurzweilai.net/

23
Kurzweil Web Sites

• Ray Kurzweil Home Page
• http//www.kurzweiltech.com/
• PBS and Scientific American and NOVA TV
  programs
• To be continued