[opendtv] Re: Kurzweil: Computers will enable people to live forever

Blargh!

Who is interested in a imortal Cesar?
God protect us!

Jonas,

from Brazil

> "Matrix" and "Battlestar Galactica" had it about right, then.
> 
> In the late 19th Century, everyone was looking for a literal "fountain
> of youth." Still doing the same thing, only now it's with science and
> engineering. Maybe we'll all get to see UHDTV, by plugging the signal
> directly into our navel.
> 
> Bert
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> Kurzweil: Computers will enable people to live forever
> 
> Sharon Gaudin
> (11/21/2006 10:36 AM EST)
> URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=195200017
> 
> In just 15 years, we'll begin to see the merger of human and computer
> intelligence that ultimately will enable people to live forever. At
> least that's the prediction of author and futurist Ray Kurzweil.
> 
> Kurzweil told a keynote audience at last week's SCO6 supercomputing
> conference that nanobots will roam our blood streams fixing diseased or
> aging organs, while computers will back up our human memories and
> rejuvenate our bodies by keeping us young in appearance and health.
> 
> The author of the book The Singularity Is Near, Kurzweil says within a
> quarter of a century, non-biological intelligence will match the range
> and subtlety of human intelligence. He predicts that it will then soar
> past human ability because of the continuing acceleration of
> information-based technologies, as well as the ability of machines to
> instantly share their knowledge.
> 
> In an interview with InformationWeek, Kurzweil said people and computers
> will intermix with nanobots, blood cell-sized robots, that will be
> integrated into everything from our clothing to our bodies and brains.
> People simply need to live long enough-another 15 to 30 years-to live
> forever. Think of it as replacing everyone's "human body version 1.0"
> with nanotechnology that will repair or replace ailing or aging tissue,
> he says. Parts will become easily replaceable.
> 
> "A $1,000 worth of computation in the 2020s will be 1,000 times more
> powerful than the human brain," says Kurzweil, adding that in 25 years
> we'll have multiplied our computational power by a billion. "Fifteen
> years from now, it'll be a very different world. We'll have cured cancer
> and heart disease, or at least rendered them to manageable chronic
> conditions that aren't life threatening. We'll get to the point where we
> can stop the aging process and stave off death."
> 
> Kurzweil isn't writing science fiction. In fact, Microsoft's Bill Gates,
> a robotics director at Carnegie Mellon University, an MIT professor, and
> a physicist have all endorsed his book. He has received the National
> Medal of Technology and the Lemelson-MIT prize. The directors of the
> National Institute of Health have asked him to speak to their members.
> Kurzweil says he's simply looking back and measuring the computational
> progress the human race has made over the last century and then
> projecting that same line of progress forward into the near future.
> 
> Actually, we'll hit a point where human intelligence simply can't keep
> up with, or even follow, the progress that computers will make,
> according to Kurzweil. He expects that non-biological intelligence will
> have access to its own design plans and be able to improve itself
> rapidly. Computer, or non-biological, intelligence created in the year
> 2045 will be one billion times more powerful than all human intelligence
> today.
> 
> "Supercomputing is behind the progress in all of these areas," Kurzweil
> says, adding that a prerequisite for non-biological intelligence is to
> reverse-engineer biology and the human brain. That will give scientists
> a "toolkit of techniques" to apply when developing intelligent
> computers. In a written report, he said, "We won't experience 100 years
> of technological advance in the 21st century; we will witness on the
> order of 20,000 years of progress, or about 1,000 times greater than
> what was achieved in the 20th century."
> 
> According to Kurzweil, here's what we can expect in the not-so-distant
> future:
> 
> -Doctors will be doing a backup of our memories by the late 2030s;
> 
> -By the late 2020s, doctors will be sending intelligent bots, or
> nanobots, into our bloodstreams to keep us healthy, and into our brains
> to keep us young;
> 
> -In 15 years, human longevity will be greatly extended. By the 2020s,
> we'll be adding a year of longevity or more for every year that passes;
> 
> -In the same timeframe, we'll routinely be in virtual reality
> environments. Instead of making a cell call, we could "meet" someone in
> a virtual world and take a walk on a virtual beach and chat. Business
> meetings and conference calls will be held in calming or inspiring
> virtual locations;
> 
> -When you're walking down the street and see someone you've met before,
> background information about that person will pop up on your glasses or
> in the periphery of your vision;
> 
> -Instead of spending hours in front of a desktop machine, computers will
> be more ingrained in our environment. For instance, computer monitors
> could be replaced by projections onto our retinas or on a virtual screen
> hovering in the air;
> 
> -Scientists will be able to rejuvenate all of someone's body tissues and
> organs by transforming their skin cells into youthful versions of other
> cell types;
> 
> -Need a little boost? Kurzweil says scientists will be able to regrow
> our own cells, tissues, and even whole organs, and then introduce them
> into our bodies, all without surgery. As part of what he calls the
> "emerging field of rejuvenation medicine," new tissue and organs will be
> built out of cells that have been made younger;
> 
> -Got heart trouble? No problem, says Kurzweil. "We'll be able to create
> new heart cells from your skin cells and introduce them into your system
> through the bloodstream. Over time, your heart cells get replaced with
> these new cells, and the result is a rejuvenated, young heart with your
> own DNA"; 
> 
> -One trick we'll have to master is staying ahead of the game. Kurzweil
> warns that terrorists could, obviously, use this same technology against
> us. For example, they could build and spread a bioengineered biological
> virus that's highly powerful and stealthy.
> 
> According to Kurzweil, we're not that far away from solving a medical
> problem that has plagued scientists and doctors for quite some time now:
> the common cold. He notes that while nanotechnology could go into our
> bloodstreams and knock it out, before we even get to that stage,
> biotechnology should be able to cure the cold in just 10 years.
> 
> All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
> reserved.
>  
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