Most scientists like to dream about what will change the world — even if they understand that their own work is never likely to have quite the impact of a Copernicus or a Darwin.

The fascinating breadth of their visions of the future is revealed today by the discussion website edge.org, which has asked some of the world’s finest minds the question: “What will change everything?”

The answers, which include contributions from authors, philosophers and other intellectuals, as well as from researchers, cover all manner of predictions of “game-changing scientific ideas and developments” that they expect to live to see.

Some highlight the philosophical challenges of discovering that life exists on Mars or elsewhere in the Universe, or indeed of finding that it does not. Others tackle the catastrophic effects of climate change, and the clean energy solutions that might prevent it. There are predictions of accelerated human evolution, engineered super-intelligent brains, greatly extended lifespans and even a kind of victory of death. Some commentators of a more pessimistic outlook, meanwhile, expect to see scientific progress overcome by nuclear conflagration.

Some edited highlights are reproduced here. The full answers, many of which run to 1,000 words, can be read at http://www.edge.org.

Rodney Brooks, roboticist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Life (or not) on Mars

“I am very sure that in my lifetime we will have a definitive answer to one question that has been debated, with little data, for hundreds of years. The answer as to whether or not there is life on Mars will either be a null result if negative, or it will profoundly impact science (and perhaps philosophy and religion) if positive.

The most mind expanding outcome would be if life on Mars is not at all based on a genetic coding scheme of long chains of purine bases that decode in triples to select an amino acid to be tacked on to a protein under construction. This would revolutionise our understanding of the possibilities for biology. It would provide us with a completely different form to study. It would open the possibilities for what must be invariant in biology and what can be manipulated and engineered. It would completely change our understanding of ourselves and our Universe.”

Marcelo Gleiser, philosopher, Dartmouth College

Mastering death

“There is no question more fundamental to us than our mortality. We die and we know it. It is a terrifying, inexorable truth, one of the few absolute truths we can count on.

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