August 04 2008 / by futuretalk
Category: Other Year: General Rating: 4 Hot
By Dick Pelletier
Imagine living in an ageless, disease-free body with youthful looks, superhuman strength and a brain that can out-think computers. Now further imagine an affluent, happy, crime-free population residing in a world terraformed for comfort without dangerous storms, tsunamis, or unbearable weather.
This is the vision many forward-thinkers believe humanity can achieve during this century. Although life seems to rush by at rocket speeds today, the future will advance even faster. Author James John Bell, in his Exploring the Singularity article in The Futurist says, “We won’t just experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years.”
Scientists describe the Singularity as a point in time when technological progress becomes so rapid that it radically transforms humankind at a faster rate than anyone alive today can comprehend. Biotech, nanotech, infotech, and cognitive science will all interplay causing us to speed towards this Singularity.
Acclaimed futurist and author Ray Kurzweil argues in his book, The Singularity is Near, that we could experience this Singularity by as early as 2045.
Kurzweil predicts over the next 10 to 20 years, biotech scientists will learn to greatly slow aging and eliminate most diseases. In the 2030s, he says, nanotech will “finish the job” allowing for the redesign of the human body into an almost immortal form.
By mid-2020s, techno-enthusiasts claim pollution-free nano-replicators will be available to provide most food, clothing and household gadgets at little or no cost; and fully immersive virtual reality will create make-believe environments indiscernible from reality to satisfy even the most extreme entertainment desires.
Computers and artificial intelligence will provide the next step towards the Singularity: in the 2030s, machines will develop abilities to build copies of themselves with each generation becoming exponentially more intelligent.
By mid-2030s, cognitive scientists will unravel many of the mind’s mysteries, unlocking tremendous logic which will help everyone clearly see the disadvantages to negative thoughts of crime and selfishness. By 2040, direct neuron-to-silicon interfaces will become available combining computer speed and logic with human awareness, compassion and reasoning into a single powerful body that becomes the new us!
Forward-thinkers believe by 2050, explosive information growth created by the Singularity could thrust our world into what astronomer Nikolai Kardashev describes as a “Type 1” civilization – 150 years earlier than some have predicted – giving us abilities to terraform our planet making it free from earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and dangerous weather.
Other possible advancements from 2050 to 2100 could include colonies on Moon, Mars and beyond, finding and harnessing wormholes that break “light speed” barriers in extraterrestrial travel, and whisking information through time to meet ourselves at an earlier age, or go forward and see what the future has in store for us. It may even become possible to gather scanned minds from lost loved ones before their death enabling them to continue living in our time. How wild would that be?
Could this extraordinary future happen? Bold futurists suggest if we achieve the Singularity by 2045, all these events are possible – and medical improvements expected between 2010 and 2030 will enable most people alive today to survive and become part of this truly “magical future.” Comments welcome
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