May 06 2008 / by futuretalk
Category: Other Year: General Rating: 9 Hot
By Dick Pelletier
What will our lives be like in 25 years? Of course nobody can
predict the future with 100% accuracy, but by combining present-day
knowledge with expected science and technology breakthroughs, we
can create a plausible scenario about what life might be like in
2033. 
Today’s biotech research will soon correct many human flaws
including vulnerability to disease and telltale signs of aging.
Scientists are now learning to regrow cells, tissues and organs,
and introduce them into our bodies without surgery. By 2020, we
will experience the full benefits of the biotech revolution,
gaining tools that will drastically enhance this “house” we call
body and brain.
Advanced nanotech, expected in full force by the 2020s, is the
next step in the march towards our 2033 future. This includes
counter top nano-replicators providing food, clothing, and most
physical products at little or no cost, keeping us financially
worry-free – and the “killer-ap”, tiny nanobots cruising through
veins and neurons protecting our forever young and healthy body
24/7 from pathogens and other dangers.
The final element in the quest for this far-out future, lie in
supercomputers and artificial intelligence – powerful sophisticated
machines that, by 2033, will surpass human intelligence.
Development of these “smart” machines is as inevitable as Moore’s
Law, the 1965 dictum predicting geometric growth of semiconductor
power. Gordon Moore himself said, “Silicon intelligence will evolve
to the point where it will be difficult to tell computers from
humans”. (cont.)
Famed physicist Stephen Hawking agrees. “At the moment,
computers show no sign of intelligence. This is not surprising,
because present day computers are less complex than the brain of an
earthworm. But it seems to me that if very complicated chemical
molecules can operate in humans to make them intelligent, then
equally complicated electronic circuits can also make computers act
in intelligent ways”.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil believes we will combine our brain power,
knowledge, skills, personality; things that make us human – with
tomorrow’s computer power – to think, reason, communicate, and
create in ways we can scarcely even imagine today.
When we add explosive growth of computer intelligence to rapid
innovations in biotech and nanotech, we create a future where there
is no distinction between biological and mechanical. In this
transitional world, technology will enable us to escape today’s
frail limited bodies and evolve into powerful maintenance-free
ageless bodies that never become sick.
The point is that over the next few years, events will change
faster than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams. Much of
what we view as science fiction today will happen for real in 20
years. If we stretch that timeframe to 25 years, the results will
seem nothing short of magical.
Humanity is rapidly approaching the crossroads. We will soon
undergo a quantum leap in evolution, achieving indefinite lifespan
and eliminating all unwanted deaths. Huge opportunities will unfold
in the coming decades that today we can only begin to faintly see
or even imagine.
As we march forward into the 2010s and 2020s, advances in stem
cell science, gene therapies, and nano-miracles will make it
possible for many of today’s ‘boomers and seniors to personally
experience this “magical future” that many positive-thinkers
believe will unfold by 2033.
Comment Thread ()
