Where are we now ? What will we say of this time in future times ? Well, for a short while to come, we can call this the New New Renaissance. A time of burgeoning communication through all mediums. Art, print, and now television and the web will be filled with a flood of new works. The fine wine of the warming in human relations as a world that once was bound on every side basks in the light of new freedoms.The just dessert of more governments being liberated from the need to suppress their populations with draconian methods. The Age of Aquarius dawning before our eyes? Maybe.The Age of Aquarius will be over 2000+ years long and by the end of such a lenghthy period I don't think there will be any humans (by todays standards) left. The current trend is eliciting the help of tiny microbes to shield our bodies from those same microbes(vaccines) or other microbes(antibiotics). This in a nutshell is the height of UP. This is as far as we've gotten. There is no cure for heart,cancer,liver,aids,addiction,lost hair,accident-proneness or old age disease as of yet. Just a giant wish list. Soon, that will change. All diseases will fall and even old age. I see the end of suffering as we've known it. In our lifetime, it will pass. How? How? Well, I'm glad you asked. I and others like me, can look at the set of tools at hand, calculate rate of change from historic record, add in what learned men thought we would have( They have always underestimated ), and by figuring in the exponential effect of compounding knowledge, come up with some pretty startling predictions. Not the high end, mind you. I like to take the middle-high ground so as not to swell people's heads too much. The path we are on now leads to a point past which it will be impossible to predict. The reason for this, you will quickly see. We are heading for a point not unlike the event-horizon in cosmology. The rate at which useful knowledge doubles is an exponential object. The rate is now every 5 years. Sometime between 2010 and 2011 it will be every hour. Will we be able to approximate that enviroment? No. We could very well be unable to accomplish such and such when we go to bed and be 5 paces beyond that when we wake up the next morn. We could be the happy manufacturer of a widget when we go to bed and find no one needs them anymore when we wake up the next day. The world will be flipping realities every 15 minutes. Those future beings (I may be talking about people of 2020) will wonder how we got along, When they're not thinking of us as adorable, but pathetic monkeys.

The current trend is set to go ballistic. The path looks like this. We add machines at every level to the human form, bio-micro and nano machines with pico size computers. There will be no obvious borg-look, but the effect in some ways will be similar. We will have instantanious communication with anyone, everyone without the need for external devices. Whole worlds of very real fantasy in our heads(not unlike halodecks on Star Trek's Voyager). Heart-stopping fantasy, if that is what we seek. The need for sleep will be overcome forever. Forever, I say, because that is how long we will live. The way is clear. The first time they start to dramatically increase human intelligence, all bets will be off. The timetable right now for everlasting life in which we never grow tired, or get dull, or go insane, a life free of disease, with enhanced brains, and true fantasy existences is one hundred years to one hundred and fifty years. The problem with this estimate is the approximaters do not take into account what will happen to the pace the minute they can double the smartest human's intelligence. That human will then, double his own and quadrouple his fellows intellects(Hmmm, IQ of 1500. I'm sorry Sir, You're not bright enough for this job.) and the race is on. If you look at the amoeba, you'll surely see there is no end to up in this category, and so all the other attainments of which I spoke will quickly pass into the history books. Been there, done that Will be all you will hear. Check-out this product from the not too distant future. The point here is people can speculate what a persons abilities might be if that person is fifty percent brighter than they. Can they do as well if the person they speculate about is ten times brighter, or one hundred times brighter, or even 1000 times brighter. I think not. Here is your event-horizon. Beyond two times brighter than we, we have no scope. One thing I can tell you about the future is those beings won't need drugs, or desktops. People who have minds that can compute anything faster than, and bodies that can manufacture any drug better than any outside source won't be buying from the local store. They'll be making patent medicines inside their bodies and growing designer foods with engineered plants and animals at home. Long life means, you can afford to walk everywhere. No more cars, if that is what is desirable, as people will not tire of a hundred mile walk. Instant communication is constant communication with everyone, never lonely again. Complete control of our bodies means no need for clothes in the coldest, or hottest weather. Engineer your body so you get most of your sustenance from working outside naked. Well hello, Greeny. As for children, there will be alot fewer and when they are born alot more thought will go into them. Designer children born of artificial wombs might lead normal lives to age 6 and then in go the add-ons. They work with these to age 9 or so and then decide what outward appearance would fit them best. Let's say a 1000 years as 10yrs old and a 1000 yrs at 14 and then maybe a reverse to 10yrs old again. Anything is probable from here on out and by my measure not far off. When we are enhanced mentally, oh how much easier will it be to bring the realm of sub sub atomic (Pico and Femto) into line with its promise of unlimited energy and much much more.