Ray Kurzweil is an amazing individual!
He is an American author, a computer scientist, an inventor and also a futurist! This is the same man who predicted the rise of the internet.
Ray Kurzweil has had a fantastic track record when it comes to making predictions about technology. In fact it's stunningly accurate with over 90 per cent of his predictions coming to pass.
This is mainly because of his understanding of the power of Moore’s Law. He also works on the law of accelerating returns (Ray's law) and of the accelerated growth of these exponential technologies. It's all down to computing power, and surprisingly, it works out to be a lot easier to predict the pace of these technologies than many of us may think.
This is entirely based on the exponential growth curve, and the concept that computing power doubles these technologies every two years.
So what are his predictions for the next 25 years???? Here are a few of my favorites!
MEDICINE
By the late 2020s, and early 2030s most diseases will start to disappear. In part this is because of the biotechnology field which will completely revolutionize medicine as we know today. Nanotechnology will take over in the 2030s, and
smart nanobots will enter the human body to eliminate any foreign diseases.
We may even say goodbye to the common cold-forever, and cancer might just be another vaccine to take.
TRANSPORT
Self driving cars, and trucks will inevitably take over our roads by the 2030s thanks to AI (artificial intelligence) Ultimately many people in the transportation sector will end up losing their job because of this technology as we will all end up becoming passengers.
The safety aspect will be the best thing about this prediction though, because road injury, accidents and death involving vehicles are also predicted to fall-dramatically!!!
VIRTUAL REALITY
By 2025 virtual reality will become mainstream, and by the 2030s virtual reality will begin to feel 100% real. We will be able to upload our mind/consciousness by the end of the decade. Everyone will have an avatar! This kind of technology will evolve and become more immersive. Imagine starring in your own favorite movies from the past as yourself....
By the 2040s, non-biological intelligence will be a billion times more capable than biological intelligence.
A swarm of nanobots also known as foglets will be able to make food out of thin air and create any object in the physical world at a whim.
By 2045, we will be able to multiply our intelligence a billionfold by linking wirelessly from our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud.
By this point we would have reached the singularity where nonbiological intelligence will match the range and subtlety of human intelligence.
If you're looking for an excellent book to read upon the subject further consider Ray Kurzweil’s 2006 book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
The book chronicles the developments in science that herald a day where Transhumans – people who have crossed biological boundaries begin to merge with machines. This is often referred to as the next stage of human evolution.
Ray Kurzweil is currently now working as Google’s director of engineering.
Our world predicted by Ray Kurzweil will be an entirely different place for sure! So what do you think about the future???
By Photo by Michael Lutch. - Photo by Michael Lutch. Courtesy of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc., CC BY 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3324313
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