jmsatb5{at}aol.com wrote:
> I apologize for the cryptic nature of what follows, but in time this
> will all be cleared up.
> 
> Starting mid-July into August and possibly September, I'm going to be
> traveling quite a lot in researching a new movie project that I
> cannot, for the moment, announce.  (Not Lensman, this is a different
> project, and I've already started on Lensman.)  Suffice to say that
> the research stage is going to be extensive in the extreme.
> 
> The main emphasis is on advanced technology.  If someone who can do
> the math were to look down the road a million years and see what
> advances might be there, based on what we know now, what would that
> look like?  Advanced tech here covers warfare, living, toys,
> environment, health, media, space travel, you name it.  Everything
> that a civilization a million years more advanced than we are might
> use or encounter.
[snip

With machines "form follows function" - the inventor starts with a
problem works back to the solution.  Practical machines solve
one or possibly two problems.

Before we can go much futher we need two producer level decisions:
a.  Has human nature changed?
b.  Has the human form changed?  For example Vorlon like creatures do
     not need shoes but a bipead does.  An energy creature could live in
     space or swim in gas planets like Jupiter.

Evolution is full of species splits, some of the creatures go one
way, a second group goes a second way and a third group stays where
they are.  So we could have both energy creatures and bipeds.

What ever the future humans look like they will still have needs:
energy - to move and heat.
physical resources - to make bodies, buildings and vehicles
water - unless totally different chemistry reactions are used (very
         unlikely).
carbon or silicon based life and industrial chemistry.  They just
         make so many compounds then everything else.  Note the Earth
         is short of carbon.
organisation - groups need guilding.  Note a live alone species cannot
         develop technology because there is never a third person there.
transport
entertainment - unless there is a big change in human nature.
group bonding sessions - otherwise the group breaks up.

Andrew Swallow
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