What is the ultimate, final goal of mankind? What is the last and greatest thing we can accomplish? And what happens if and when it's done?
I find this to be a very difficult question. I've contemplated the idea of apotheosis, that a human consciousness might one day attain omniscience and omnipotence, perhaps by means of merging all conscious minds together or with an AI, but who can say if we should become God or what we would even do if we did become God?
If the universe is on track to end in heat death or the big rip or by some other means, should we find a way to prevent it, or should we accept that life cannot go on forever?
I cannot answer these questions as despite all our progress, we are probably not even scratching the surface of knowledge. Maybe there is already a God out there who thinks it is omnipotent but in fact is an insignificant entity ignorant of a greater cosmos that it inhabits, its whole creation nothing more than a sand castle on a beach on a continent on a planet in a galaxy. Perhaps the entire observable universe is nothing more than a little flicker in a greater everything and its end will mean nothing more to the greater cosmos than a candle being snuffed out in our world.
For now, I think we must continue to advance ourselves technologically as well as improving our character. I am open to the idea that our descedents a thousand years from now will see us as barbaric, cruel, and stupid savages. Only time will tell what is out there and what we can or should do.
