When the science-fiction writers and futurists imagine people of the distant future, they never think that our descendants will look just as we are now. In the end, we will get access to the powerful tools that will turn us into cyborgs or hack our DNA, so there is no limit to what we can to transform themselves.

But how strange can become our distant descendants? Before you the ten most bizarre images of the future post-humanity.

1. Voluntary devolution

What could be better than to open the list of the ten most bizarre ideas about the future of mankind than to imagine that instead of huge step forward we will make a step backwards? Voluntary devolution is the idea that we should conduct a re-engineering of the human race to the point where we will not developed enough to be considered human beings. The basis for this idea is the notion that humanity has evolved badly, and we need to bring him back to a state of complete harmlessness. Returning to pre-civilization stage, we will cease to be a threat for themselves in the world of animals, and the planet itself. This can be interpreted as a kind of oxymoronical super luddism when progress is not measured by the increase and improvement of human potential, but on the contrary - their decrease. The final goal will be the end of civilization and our return to the jungle.

2. Voluntary extinction of mankind

But why stop there, if you can completely rid the planet of the human race - and to do it this way on which we can all agree? This is the aim of the Movement for the voluntary extinction of mankind (VHEMT) movement, which is actively working on the cessation of existence of humanity, asking us (very politely) to cease to multiply. Armed with the slogan, "Yes we live for a long time and, eventually, to become extinct", VHEMT aim to return the Land to its original healthy state. With the disappearance of mankind, all the remaining creatures on Earth will have the freedom to live, to die, and to evolve naturally. Adherents of model voluntary disappearances insist that they are not haters, they just provide inspiring alternative to the ruthless exploitation and widespread destruction of terrestrial ecology".

3. The flourishing eco man

Some environmentally conscious futurists not happy to see humanity Revolucionarias or even disappeared from the face of the Earth - but they also do not believe in our ability to cope with climate change and other environmental disasters. The solution to these problems, in their opinion, is a deliberate modification of the people for a better life in harmony with the planet. In an article entitled "the Engineering of human rights and climate change", philosophers Matthew S. Liao, Anders Sandberg, and Rebecca roach prove that people should refer to such measures as pharmacologically induced intolerance of meat because meat production is particularly serious in its consequences for the environment), genetic engineering eyes like a cat's, to reduce our needs, and reducing our physical size to reduce our pressure on the ecosystem (they recommend a 21 percent reduction in body weight for men and 25 per cent for women). They also hope to see an increase our will power, which in their opinion will have a peripheral effect of improving our feelings of empathy and altruism.

4. Transgenic people

But why limit yourself by adding some new abilities, if we can take the whole complexes of the qualities of the animal Kingdom? Transgenic technologies that enable genetic mixing of human and animal characteristics, can allow us to create an almost infinite range of human-animal hybrids. There are many things that we could borrow from our smaller brothers: they hear and smell much better than we, cats can see in the dark, some primates have a better memory than we, birds have very acute eyesight. Looking ahead into the future, when we will be able to apply to themselves the transgenic modifications, many supporters of transhumanism agree to receive the eye of the eagle, the scales of lizards, or the ability to live in the ocean, as dolphins.

5. Consuming brain

This classic view of mankind, which has developed a huge brain to the detriment of the rest of the body. In his strange story "the Man of one millionth of the year", H. G. wells has described the idea that human dependence on technology, in the end, will reduce its dependence on the body, and increase - from the brain. Even a simple knife and fork, says wells, will ever lead to the fact that the human jaw will not be as powerful. Modern facilities, such as motorized transport, will lead to the fact that the legs of man will disappear, as well as torsos and almost all muscles so that our descendants will actually turn into a huge brain, which move with the help of the arms. But how realistic is this vision? According to the principles of Darwinism, physical characteristics are really starting to disappear if they are not constantly increase of selective pressure. The human Appendix is one of the main examples of this, a classic example is "or use it or get rid of it". As for the huge spherical skulls, it is probably unlikely, because the size of the brain is not correlated with intelligence, and in addition, we are increasingly transferring our thinking in the external device.

6. The hive mind

The hive mind, as he shows, for example, people insects from the Hive of Hellstrom Frank Herbert, this is a possible future state, in which human social organization takes the form of a superorganism, like ants or bees. In this state, the individual will of man practically replaced by the needs of the team, or some type of centralized intelligence. Totalitarian experiments of the twentieth century were the prototype of this idea, the merciful limited primitiveness of their technology. But looking to the future, it is easy to imagine the dreaded prospect of a resumption of state efforts to control the thoughts and actions of a population - using techniques such as ubiquitous surveillance and technology of mind control (for example, using nanobots or cybernetic brain implants). But the heyday of the hive mind can be also presented as a positive step in human communication and social organization - to what many call the global mind or the Noosphere. The big question, however, is how a large part of individuality can keep an individual in a sea of competing thoughts?

7. Postgenderism people

Advanced technologies in the field of reproduction and Cybernetics will have a large impact on our biological nature. Currently we are connected to sexual reproduction and are binary beings, our race is composed of men and women. But using the potential of cyborgization we can stop biological organisms in the traditional sense of the word. Future people, or those who would rather be at this time already by posthumans, can choose to be postgenderism beings, that is, they will not be tied to one specific biological sex, instead taking the best features from each of them (something like technological androgenization). Future people may decide to refuse sexual characteristics and become asexual. Even more radical, it is possible to create absolutely new biological sexes, or amorphous sexual characteristics, which can be changed on the fly.

8. Uncontrolled morphological arms race

Such auxiliary reproductive technologies as genomics will allow future couples to take part in choosing the property of her unborn child, or as it is more commonly called "the design of the child". It is also possible that advanced technologies somatic gene therapy will allow people to modify and improve their genetic Constitution after his birth. But some physical improvements can be used to gain advantage in certain areas that will likely spur a sort of arms race. Take, for example, sports. Basketball players in need growth, while swimmers important is the length of their arms and legs. In our days, athletes get these characteristics at birth, but in the future, those who seek the physical benefits, can go on changing your genome (or it can go to their parents, is obsessed with the idea to see their child star of some particular sport). These modifications may exceed all that we have ever seen before, and can lead to some very bizarre and extreme physical forms.

9. People, modified for space

It is no secret that people in his current physical form completely unfit to live in space. Long-term effects of zero gravity and solar radiation make space bad external environment for these fragile creatures as we are. But this does not stop some people from speculation about how people can be modified to withstand the harsh conditions of space-and their solutions are very far from delicate. Expert in nanotechnology Robert Freitas outlined the plan for the destruction of the lungs, which will make the presence of air to breath the optionalathelny. Ray Kurzweil suggests that future people won't need the food, instead, equipping themselves with nanobots that will energize our cells. And even Craig Venter took part in the discussions, calling for the development of a more perfect inner ear that will allow people to get rid of "sickness" in space, new genes for the regeneration of the bone, and DNA repair affected by solar radiation. He also suggested that we develop a smaller body, a higher level of metabolism, get rid of the hair, and make the process of replacing skin slower. But others continue to speculate on the theme of what we transform ourselves in osminoga-like creatures that are much better able to slip in zero gravity.

10. Download

Although the idea of loading the human consciousness in the supercomputer fancy itself, some ideas about life after you download even more strange. Take for example Ananinskiy download - the assumption that the downloaded minds can create an almost infinite number of copies of themselves to compete in a tough economic markets. This assumption is heated by the concern that the copying process itself is fast and cheap, which will lead to an explosive growth in the number of downloads. Another scenario is considering for the loaded mind to adjust the relative speed of their internal clock. With infinitely slow internal time, for example, downloaded the mind can actually observe the phenomena of geological time scale, such as appearance and destruction of mountains. Loaded minds can also jump from one cybernetic body to another, constantly changing in shape in the real world. Another exciting option can come in the form of changes in fundamentals computer generated environment. This can lead to things far beyond human understanding, both in terms of physical space (like adding new dimensions or changes the physics of the environment)and the nature of psychological subjective consciousness.