No self professed philosopher is complete without his 'Grand Theory' of The Meaning of it All...so here's mine.

It's rather simple. I just list all the things I don't know...and since I don't know them, I assume them to be conducive to my ends and by due process of elimination, I get there...with a lot of hullabaloo on the way. Which doesn't make me much of a philosopher...let's be thankful for the small mercies. d;-))

Merci, where do I begin...at the beginning? Only problem is, I don't know a thing about the beginning...which is why I aim to become a physicist :-) Let's just say the Universe began in a way that has lead it to its present state. But, dear boy, we don't know what its present state is? True, so I shall simply assume it is causal and therefore follows 'The Laws of the Universe'...2^nd Edition (Paperback)

I am more interested, at the moment, in what effect its being causal has on us. Or maybe only on me...I know you couldn't care a hoot. Maybe two? As I see it, causality magnifies (as opposed to reduces) us to automata. We ain't got no free will, no choice, no responsibility, no life...still look at the bright side, we're left with nothing.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the ancien regime, the argument goes something like this.

• Tenet, The First : There is no soul or anything resembling it. Man's consciousness is purely a function of the physical interactions between itsy bitsy thingumajigs in his brain. Women are of course beyond belief.
• Corollary, The First: If we are indeed entirely physical entities, every aspect of us is subject to the vagaries of the environment, and I don't mean the weather. Even our thoughts, decisions and ideas are a function of the physical state of the brain; which in turn depends on its previous state, and so on...ad infinitum.
  Old Corollary always was a presumptuous kid.
• Corollary, The Second: Physical dependence of mental states eliminates free will and choice. We become automata. The nice thing is that this solves the human/AI debate rather neatly. And neatness isn't one of the Ten Commandments. Or is it? Maybe it was put into the fine print.
• Corollary, The Third: Lack of choice leads to the trivialisation of all moral and behavioural questions, the negation of all that's good and bad and an emptiness of tautological dimensions.
• Footnote, The Rescuer: Being a philosopher, I can't afford to resolve everything in a couple of paragraphs, so I resort to hierachial reductionism...or some such anachronism (notice my fondness for words I can't pronounce). At a fundamental level, everything can be explained in principle by physical laws, notwithstanding the Uncertainty Principle. Still, one can try to explain stuff at higher hierachial levels. For instance, I can try to explain human behaviour on the basis of behavioural patterns, analogies and edifying assumptions, rather than interactions between neurons in the brain. Phew! For a moment there, I thought I was out of a pastime.

A discussion of the pros and cons of this hypothesis: clickety, click, clak.

To predict the future, it is necessary to examine the past...it's a lot easier anyway ;).

I have divided this section into two broad categories:

Technology
Mankind

Technological change is what will drive all other change. It is the fastest moving force and is the only thing that stands between humanity and the abyss (God being on an extended vacation).

The most important aspect of technology is the integration of 'machines' with man. Already we have numerous prosthetic devices that help those with damaged organs. However, the most imporatant advance is yet to come. The integration of an electronic device with the brain.

Experiments in which microchips have been linked to nerves have already been carried out. That is a long way from the Real McCoy and I suspect we shall have to understand a lot more of the working of the brain before we can even begin to speculate on this.
Human intelligence.

Imagine the power you will posses if you were linked up to even a single processor with a clock speed of a few thousand gigahertz, and a few petabytes of memory. Not only would you have instant recall, but all mundane tasks like computation and basic analysis could be performed practically instantaneously. And that means that you can kiss all educational institutions goodbye. Talk about the end justifying the means ;)

In all probability, we will not only be linked up to large inhouse processing power, we shall also become part of a global network of minds, linked seamlessly and wirelessly.

Why? Moral Issues.