Will the human race go on forever?

대왕광개토

I think that humans should first overcome countless conflicts and problems prevalent on Earth in order to become technologically advanced enough to deal with dangers that are awaiting us in space(for example, supernova and asteroids). In the process of overcoming problems on Earth, we might become more civilized than ever. Once we become extremely advanced in terms of technology and mind(becoming more civilized), we would gain chance to go on at least for a long time. If we can somehow reach that point, we might then have to think seriously about extraterrestrial beings, namely, aliens. We might wage war against invasive aliens, or communicate with friendly aliens. It is exciting and fun to imagine bunch of aliens having a conference with humans. If that actually happens, people living in that period might talk about how ancient people(us) portrayed aliens in movies/series/cartoons.

Plaffelvohfen

As it stands now, no... Maybe a few hundred billion years tops (IF we can escape our galaxy), maybe a few thousand billion years, even if we do escape our galaxy... Here's a video time lapse of the future, a journey to the end of the universe... 

MayCaesar

Humans as pure organic species are almost certainly going to become extinct in a few centuries. Given the incredible genetic, cybernetic, nanotechnological and AI technologies inbound, we will likely alter our organisms enough over the next few centuries that there will barely be any resemblance between modern humans, and those we have become. We could become a one large hive mind, or dual organisms with human brain and an AI system merged, or pure robotic organisms with nothing organic left. Or maybe we will be something different entirely, say, tiny microprocessors sitting deep below the sea level, living in controlled virtual reality. It is hard to predict now what we will be like, aside from, "Nothing like we are today".

Now, whether we will disappear in the sense that our great-great-great-great...[200 times]...grandchildren will be wiped out by something - this is harder to answer. Nothing in our modern knowledge suggests that a civilisation is bound to cross some dangerous threshold that causes it to self-destruct, and a cosmic event of required proportions is unlikely, especially since in a century or two we will probably feel as comfortable living on other planets and in other star systems as we are on Earth today. At the same time, our sample size is limited to just one civilisation, and we are obviously biased when judging its success and projected performance. Maybe there is "Great barrier(s)" that cause most civilisations eventually to encounter a challenge that leads to its demise, although I struggle to even imagine what it could be. I doubt it is something as trivial as runaway climate change, robot rebellion, nuclear war or the grey goo scenario. It would have to be something more subtle, something less predictable. The theory I like is that, as a species becomes super-intelligent, it, through some reasoning incomprehensible to us, decides that it is better to not live than live, and commits a mass-suicide. Regardless, whatever it is, if exists, it is not something we can reasonably prepare for.

I think it is too early to hypothesise whether we will make it as a civilisation, or be broken. We know far too little about the world, as well as ourselves, to know what our lives will be like just 50 years from now, let alone in the distant future. Some people like to think about what we can do to prepare for the catastrophic changes in the solar energy output a billion years from now... But the reality is that, if whatever becomes of us is still around in the Solar system by then, then it will have the existence far outside our imagination, and whatever challenges it will face are not going to be comprehensible to us any time soon.