couple of questions

[miketv]

Man's progress is a story of devolving physical strength & evolving intellectual prowess. The toughest modern football player couldn't hope to win a fight with the average caveman, but as dumb as the jock might be he can easily out-think the caveman. This is an indication that the body is becoming less important than the mind for the survival of the species.
Given a long enough timeline, will we completely outlive the need for our bodies?
If so, how can we speed up the process?

[i_like_1981]

What exactly are you trying to get at here? That over time, the mind will become so strong that eventually there will be no need for physical strength whatsoever? Sounds an interesting concept, but as the body can't survive without the mind, the mind can't work without a functioning body. Great minds can still survive in physically ravaged bodies but if they can't express themselves through the power of words, then they have no use. The mind requires the body to be expressed. For the mind to possibly survive on its own without a body, technology would be required that will not be around for... a very long time yet.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Fat Man]

Man's progress is a story of devolving physical strength & evolving intellectual prowess. The toughest modern football player couldn't hope to win a fight with the average caveman, but as dumb as the jock might be he can easily out-think the caveman. This is an indication that the body is becoming less important than the mind for the survival of the species.
Given a long enough timeline, will we completely outlive the need for our bodies?
If so, how can we speed up the process?

Without our bodies, how can we express ourselves?

Without our hands, how can we use tools to build or create new inventions or works of art?

Without our voices, how can we speak or sing?

Instead of having physical bodies, would we become beings composed of pure energy, looking like glowing blobs of pulsating light?

That might be cool if we can explore space, and move off across the galaxy or explore the universe without the need of space ships, because as energy beings, we won't need to eat food, or drink liquids, or breath in order to live. We could absorb energy from the stars or from cosmic background radiation. That would be our food. I wonder, would different wavelengths of light or energy have different flavors?

Without voices, we would communicate through thoughts. But would we be able to keep some of our thoughts private from other fellow energy beings?

Also, as we move across the universe, it would be nice to communicate telepathically with physical corporal beings, and to tell them who we are, where we came from, to tell our story, and impart knowledge.

I have always been interested in Astronomy, seeking knowledge of the cosmos, but because of the declining quality of education in the USA in our schools, my desire to learn science was continuously suppressed, even brutally suppressed by our sports obsessed culture.

But as a disembodied energy being, I could be living out there in space and acquire perfect knowledge. I would feel at home out there.

Of course, we could still create works of art, because we would have the ability to manipulate physical matter, moving stuff with our minds, so we could still leave our mark everywhere we go.

We could also take on the appearance of physical objects, or corporal beings, and "walk" among them, and even experience physical senses such as sight, hearing, taste, or smell if we wanted to, and then, vanish in a poof of light or smoke, disappear and move on and explore other worlds.

We would also be immortal.

That would be nice. No more pain. No more arthritis in my knees and ankles. I wouldn't have to feel pain anymore, unless I wanted to, but then, I could turn the pain off again, on or off at will.

We would be like the Q as depicted in Star Trek The Next Generation.

OH NO! NOT THAT!

I would hate to think that after a few billion years or so, after having explored many other universes and many other dimensions, that our ultimate destiny would be to live in some small redneck looking village for all eternity, and each one of us taking turns being the scarecrow out in the middle of a cornfield!

That's what eventually happened to the Q.

The big cosmic SUCK!!!

[ChrisOH]

I seem to remember an original "Star Trek" episode from the 1960's that depicted creatures that had evolved into such "energy beings". (The episode was called "Arena" and the species were called Metrons -- thanks, Google!). In the episode, the Metrons took on corporeal bodies with dealing with other life forms.

[Skul]

Given a long enough timeline, will we completely outlive the need for our bodies?
If so, how can we speed up the process?

Even if we could speed it up by a few thousand years, there would still be a long wait before any significant changes.

I would hate to think that after a few billion years or so, after having explored many other universes and many other dimensions, that our ultimate destiny would be to live in some small redneck looking village for all eternity, and each one of us taking turns being the scarecrow out in the middle of a cornfield!

That's what eventually happened to the Q.

"Oh, we've all been the scarecrow!"