AI, nanotech, and all those crazy dreams (Score 1)

It seems to me that people either fear radical technology or see it as destiny. The talk of AI and directed evolution and human extinction seems like it's misunderstanding something to me. A lot of the promise of directed evolution (by whatever means) is the end of disease and death, etc., etc., etc.--the same fountain of youth crap humanity's always been looking for. But maybe this time it is possible. Maybe this time all those dreams can come true. But it will end shortly thereafter. Many complaints go against the "random" nature of evolution--its inefficiencies, its misdirection. But what if these things aren't random; what if any system must have an internalized system of limitations that create stability and equanimity. The "problems" of evolution may not be problems at all; they may be important features. We are seeking, though technology, to overcome what we should be learning to live with. Take, for instance, weapons development. You invent and research more and more methods for efficiency and effectiveness and then you end up with nuclear weapons that can just eliminate whole armies in just a couple strikes (verses protracted warfare of the past) and it all seems so great and then you realize it's creates more problems than it solves. There need to be limits and the "ultimate" solution may not be the best solution. So after we've conquered disease and we've directed our evolution and achieved the fountain of youth. We may find we actually need the limitations of death and disease(or whatever is invented at that time) just to survive. This whole work of AI and nanotechnolgy and directed evolution then becomes a silly tangent.

The question is, how much of ourselves will we have lost in the process?