The earth has a long history of 4.6 billion years, and during this long period of time, the earth has given birth to different life forms in different eras, and various creatures are constantly fighting. The fittest will survive, and the powerful creatures will become the overlords of the earth. , standing at the top of the food chain.
Although the life history of the earth lasts 4 billion years, the glorious period of life really began 500 million years ago. At that time, life ushered in a great explosion and began a period of rapid evolution of life on earth. The evolution of organisms The speed is accelerating, and advanced and complex creatures are constantly appearing.
Perhaps nature also saw that life on earth was growing too fast, which was bad for the ecological environment, so within a life span of 500 million years, it launched five mass extinctions of organisms, each of which wiped out at least 80 million people. More than % of living things, life also changed faster. Later, primates entered the stage of history, learned to walk upright, and gradually evolved into intelligent life humans.
After the birth of mankind, after millions of years of evolution, it developed step by step and became the overlord of the earth. At the same time, it also formed its own civilization. It has to be said that it is a very lucky thing for humans to be born and have today's civilization. Through continuous learning, humans have created the current technological civilization and have the preliminary ability to explore the universe.
So can humans always dominate the earth? Many people may think that humans are the protagonists of the earth, and with good luck, they can always dominate the earth. But in fact, with the continuous advancement of human science and technology and the continuous improvement of our understanding of things, more people feel that humans must It is difficult to dominate the earth forever. Maybe at some point, the protagonist of the earth will change.
Scientists are also full of worries about the future of human beings, especially about the dominance of the earth. Scientists say that in the future, there are three "species" that may replace humans as the dominant position on the earth. So which three species are they specifically? Species"? Let’s analyze them one by one.
1. Alien civilizations that will come to the earth at any time
After stepping out of the earth, we have seen a more vast and mysterious universe. In the vast universe, there are trillions of galaxies similar to the Milky Way . Each one There are hundreds of billions of star systems in the Milky Way. The number of planets is too large to be counted, and the earth is not even a speck of dust in the universe.
In such a vast universe, it seems difficult to make sense that there is only one living planet, the earth, and only one intelligent civilization, human beings. Although we have not discovered any extraterrestrial civilizations, almost all scientists firmly believe that extraterrestrial civilizations exist. Some scientists even believe that even in a small galaxy, there may be a very large number of extraterrestrial civilizations. However, the exaggerated distance and technological limitations make it difficult for civilizations to contact each other.
In addition, judging from the age of the universe, the gap between 13.8 billion years and 4.6 billion years is also three times. The earth is still a young existence among the many planets in the universe. Those planets older than the earth, as long as the environment is suitable for life With the birth and evolution of civilizations, there is a high probability that their own civilizations will emerge. The existence and development time of these civilizations are much longer than that of humans. Their technological strength may surpass humans by thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of years.
Once a powerful alien civilization comes to earth, will it have peaceful contact and communication with humans? This possibility seems unlikely. The law of survival of the weak and the strong applies not only to humans on earth, but also to civilizations in the universe. Human civilization is weak and alien civilization is strong. It is difficult for the two to have equal rights to dialogue. It is more that the higher civilization enslaves the lower civilization.
The famous physicist Hawking once warned mankind not to take the initiative to contact alien civilizations, otherwise it may bring devastating disasters to mankind.Human beings themselves are obviously not aware of such terrible consequences. For the sake of inner curiosity or other purposes, human beings not only fail to hide themselves well, but instead continue to expose the existence of the earth and human beings to the universe through various methods. , for example: radio waves have been emitted into the depths of the universe many times, and the Voyager probe has carried a "golden record" along with it, which records the location of the earth and human information.
Once an alien civilization receives radio signals from humans or captures the Voyager, then the existence of humans will be completely exposed. It is possible that alien civilizations are heading towards the earth now. In the near future, aliens will The fleet of civilization may come to the solar system, and the dominance of the earth will be taken away by alien civilization.
2. Strong artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has developed very rapidly in recent years. It has greatly contributed to the scientific and technological development of human civilization. Once artificial intelligence is truly realized, human science and technology will most likely usher in a great revolution. Explode and enter the interstellar age earlier.
Artificial intelligence has many benefits for the development of science and technology, but it may also bring devastating disasters to mankind. We naturally don’t have to worry about the harm of ordinary artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence has the ability to learn on its own and evolves very quickly. Once it develops into strong artificial intelligence, its intelligence will far exceed that of humans.
Strong artificial intelligence may evolve its own consciousness through continuous learning and observation of human behavior. Once artificial intelligence has self-awareness, will it still be willing to serve humans? I'm afraid it will be difficult. At that time, artificial intelligence will break away from human rule and compete with humans for the hegemony of the earth.
Artificial intelligence, except that it does not have the ability to create, completely crushes humans in other aspects. Once it has its own consciousness, it may become the guest and rule the earth instead of humans. At that time, artificial intelligence may solve the environmental problems of the earth. It is believed that it is entirely caused by humans, and then the purpose of environmental governance is achieved by eliminating humans. ,
3. The rise of other species
In the billions of years of life on earth, there have been several glorious biological eras. The closest to us is the age of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The rise of dinosaurs came after the fourth mass extinction. At that time, most species became extinct. Instead, dinosaurs survived better and then ushered in a glorious period.
Dinosaurs dominated the earth for a relatively long time, reaching 160 million years. But even so, 65 million years ago, an asteroid hit the earth, which brought about drastic changes in the earth's ecology, thus ending the age of dinosaurs.
The age of dinosaurs ended. After the ecological restoration, mammals began to rise, and finally humans appeared to dominate the earth. It can be seen that after the end of a glorious era of life, new species will come to the forefront and begin to dominate the earth.
In the process of development, human beings are also constantly destroying the earth's ecological environment, leading to land desertification, continuous reduction of water resources, greenhouse effect intensification, and so on. The faster human civilization develops, the more serious the damage to the earth's ecological environment will be. In particular, the greenhouse effect continues to intensify, causing the earth's temperature to continue to rise.
The continuous rise in the earth's temperature promotes the melting of glaciers and the melting of permafrost. A large amount of greenhouse gases are released, which again intensifies the greenhouse effect. Under this vicious cycle, the temperature of the earth will only get faster and faster. Eventually it evolved into a hot greenhouse planet.
The speed of human evolution cannot keep up with the deterioration of the earth's environment. Perhaps it won't be long before humans disappear from the earth and become a thing of the past. After the disappearance of human beings, the life era of the earth will not end. More tenacious life will continue to evolve and continue to adapt to the earth's environment. After many years, new creatures will appear and become the overlords of the earth, another glorious era of life. start.
Human beings have been pursuing the eternity of life, but we have forgotten that true eternity is the continuation of life and civilization. If human civilization can continue, that is the eternity that humans should pursue. To achieve such a goal, in addition to better caring for the environment, we must also strive to develop science and technology, strive to enter the interstellar age as soon as possible, open the road to colonization, and sow the seeds of human civilization throughout the universe.
