Mehul Reuben DasMar 29, 2023 09:57:39 IST
A former Google programmer came to the startling realisation that humans will achieve immortality in eight years, and 86 per cent of his 147 forecasts have come true. Ray Kurzweil spoke with Adagio on YouTube about the advancements in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, which he thinks will lead to age-reversing ‘nanobots.’
These small machines will fix damaged cells and tissues that deteriorate as we age, making us resistant to diseases such as cancer.
The prediction that such an accomplishment will be accomplished by 2030 have been met with both enthusiasm and doubt, as curing all fatal illnesses appears to be a long way off from a permanent and practical cure.
Who is Ray Kurzweil and what were his major predictions?
Kurzweil was recruited by Google in 2012 to “work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing,” but he had been making technical forecasts for a long time.
He predicted in 1990 that the world’s greatest chess champion would be defeated by a computer by 2000, and it occurred in 1997 when Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov.
In 1999, Kurzweil made another shocking prediction: by 2023, a $1,000 laptop would have the processing ability and storage space of a human brain.
Now, the former Google engineer thinks that technology will become so powerful that it will allow humans to live eternally, a phenomenon known as Singularity.
Kurzweil and Singularity
According to LifeBoat, Singularity is a speculative concept of a juncture at which, artificial intelligence exceeds human intellect and alters the course of our development. Kurzweil, a futurist author, prophesied that the technical singularity would occur by 2045, with AI clearing the Turing test in 2029.
It measures a machine’s capacity to show intelligent behaviour that is comparable to, or indistinguishable from, that of a person. He claims that computers are already making us smarter and that linking them to our neocortex will allow people to think more clearly.
How humans will reach mortality? Nanobots and Nanomachines hold the key
Contrary to popular belief, he thinks that implanting computers in our minds will benefit us.
‘We’re going to get more neocortex, we’re going to be funny, we’re going to be better at singing,’ says one. ‘We’re going to be hotter,’ he declared.
“We’re going to embody all of the qualities that we appreciate in humans to a larger extent.”
Rather than a future in which machines take over humanity, Kurzweil thinks we will build a human-machine synthesis that will improve us.
Nanobots already a massive part of our lives
Nanomachines implanted in the human body have been a staple of science fiction for decades. The US National Science Foundation projected more than ten years ago that ‘network-enhanced telepathy,’ or sending ideas over the internet, would be feasible by the 2020s.
‘Eventually, it will impact everything,’ Kurzweil predicted. ‘We will be able to satisfy all of humanity’s physical requirements. We’re going to broaden our horizons and demonstrate the artistic traits that we respect.’
The process began centuries ago with simple devices such as eyeglasses and ear trumpets that could dramatically improve human lives, he believes
Then came better machines, such as hearing aids and devices that could save lives, including pacemakers and dialysis machines. By the second decade of the 21st Century, we have become used to organs grown in laboratories, genetic surgery and designer babies.
