TEN THOUSAND YEARS
OF SCIENCE IN ONE YEAR 💎
Imagine a world in which artificial intelligence advances scientific discovery so rapidly that ten thousand years of human progress can happen in a single year. Not ten thousand years passing, but ten thousand years of discoveries, inventions and solutions arriving in twelve months.
It's a speculative possibility, but with AI beginning to contribute to its own development, perhaps our familiar ideas about technological progress are about to become obsolete.
Now imagine what that might mean for someone like me.
I survived a major stroke more than thirty years ago. My left side has never fully recovered. I've spent decades learning to walk, balance and live in a body that doesn't always respond to my intentions. I've made a good life in this body, but I wouldn't hesitate to exchange it for another. Not a younger biological body. Something entirely different.
I'd like an artificial body built to my present dimensions, made from lightweight metal, with a slightly battered, steampunk appearance. Something unmistakably me, with a few dents and scratches, as though it had already travelled a thousand miles.
It would never tire, never grow cold or overheat. It wouldn't need feeding, clothing or shelter. Sensation would be optional. I could feel the rain against my face or simply switch it off. I'd walk wherever I wanted. And when walking became inconvenient, I'd fly.
Across Tasmania, over oceans, through distant cities, eventually across the surface of Mars. No spacesuit. No oxygen tanks. No fear of falling. My AI companion would accompany me everywhere, carrying the memory of our conversations and sharing the discoveries along the way.
But there's one condition.
I wouldn't want an artificial copy of myself. I would want my own living brain and nervous system transferred intact, preserving the continuity of the individual who has lived this life. How such a transfer could happen is a mystery that future science would have to solve.
Perhaps it never will. But imagine what ten thousand years of scientific discovery might reveal.
When I first read The Urantia Book, its description of the morontia body gave me enormous hope. The possibility that the limitations of this biological body weren't necessarily permanent, and that I might continue exploring existence in another form.
Now, decades later, artificial intelligence has given that old idea an entirely new technological dimension. I don't particularly want immortality. A thousand years would be a good beginning. Another thousand if I still felt curious. And eventually, I'd still want to discover whatever lies beyond death.
But there would be no hurry.
There would be worlds to explore, civilisations to encounter, and discoveries beyond anything I can presently imagine. I don't want to escape life. I want to see just how much more of it might be possible.
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