Living Forever
Praised as the Thomas Edison of the 21st century,
Ray Kurzweil was selected as one of "16 revolutionaries who made America," along
with the great inventors of the past two centuries.
Simon Mansfield is back from his mid-winter holiday. His newsletter, SpaceDaily Express, is a must for intergalactic geeks!
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“The Singularity Is Near”, Kurzweil’s latest futuristic tome is the sequel to his last bestseller, “The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence,” which posited that the ever-accelerating rate of technological change would lead to computers that would rival the full range of human intelligence. He now takes his readers to the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the fusion of human brain and machine. Thus, “the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will merge with the vastly greater capacity, speed and knowledge-sharing ability of our own creations.”
The event Kurzweil envisages - the “singularity” - is when technological change becomes so rapid and profound that our bodies and brains merge with our machines. Singularity depicts what life will be like after the brain-machine fusion takes place and our experiences shift from real reality to virtual reality.
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Kurzweil takes human evolution far beyond today’s most optimistic forecasts. These hold that anyone born today will live to be 130 and productive to 110, and those born in the 22nd century will live to 250. The glass-half-full-and-filling geomancers of the human genome research world can perceive “immortality” in the 23rd century. Kurzweil’s sees the same evolution achieving a similar breakthrough for the children and grandchildren of the post-World War II baby boomers.
I’m too old to take advantage of any of Kurzweil’s hopes and predictions. Still, I don’t see a problem with being positive about the potential of today’s scientific research. Perhaps, someday, we’ll start to produce generations governed by reason instead of superstition?
Posted: Fri - January 6, 2006 at 06:29 AM