A tech expert famous for predicting the iPhone era has made shocking and sometimes alarming new predictions in a new book, the Daily Mail reports.
The future will belong to cyborgs, believes Ray Kurzweil PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK
In his new book, The Singularity is Nearer, Google computer scientist Ray Kurzweil predicts that humans will become immortal cyborgs by 2045.
Another prediction is that advances in artificial intelligence will make it possible to resurrect loved ones and connect our brains to cloud technology in what he calls the “fifth age” of human intelligence.
The singularity is the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually surpass human intelligence, which will fundamentally change human existence.
“Children born today will be graduating from college when the Singularity happens,” he writes.
“Ultimately, nanotechnology will enable these trends to culminate in the direct augmentation of our brains with layers of virtual neurons in the cloud.
“In this way we will merge with AI. It will be the most exciting years in history”, he appreciates.
He claims that recent AI breakthroughs, such as ChatGPT, show that the prediction in the first book, The Singularity is Near (2005), was correct, and “the trajectory is clear.”
The dead will come back to life
Kurzweil believes that AI technology promises to “bring back” the dead: first in the form of simulations capable of reproducing a person, and then in physical form.
Kurzweil’s attempts to “bring back” his father – who died when Kurzweil was 22 – using artificial intelligence began more than 10 years ago.
Kurzweil created a robot lookalike of his father by feeding an artificial intelligence system with his letters, essays and musical compositions.
“We are already creating through our digital activities thick archives of how we reflect on what we feel.
“And in this decade, our technologies for recording, storing and organizing this information will advance rapidly.”
By the late 2020s, Kurzweil expects “highly realistic” non-biological recreations of humans, and then living bodies.
“Eventually, artificial replicas could even be housed in cybernetically augmented biological bodies grown from the original person’s DNA,” he writes in the new book.
Kurzweil predicts that humans will move into artificial bodies “more advanced than biology allows” so that by the 2040s a copy of a person will be possible.
Humans will become a million times smarter
Kurzeil says we’re about to enter the “fifth age” of intelligence, where humans merge with machines, triggered by the emergence of human-level AI and brain chips like those developed by Elon Musk’s company Neuralink.
The futurist predicts that after 2029, human intelligence will multiply millions of times by directly connecting human beings to machines.
“A key capability in the 2030s will be connecting the higher reaches of our neocortices to the cloud, which will directly expand our thinking.
“In this way, rather than being a competitor to us, AI will become an extension of us,” he writes.
Immortality will be possible starting in 2030
Humans will begin to reach the conditions for immortality by 2030, Kurzweil predicts.
Progress will be supported by huge advances in health treatment.
He writes that by 2030, AI biological simulators will conduct clinical trials in just hours, not years, making it possible to quickly produce new drugs and treatments for longevity.
“The long-term goal is medical nanorobots. They will be made of diamondoid pieces with sensors, manipulators, computers, communicators and possibly power sources.
Life will become easier
Kurzweil believes the technology will revolutionize everyday life, with robots able to build skyscrapers incredibly quickly with the help of 3D printers.
Other breakthroughs based on artificial intelligence will reduce the price of solar energy, through revolutions in the field of photovoltaics, which will reduce the price of energy.
Meanwhile, breakthroughs in robotic mining will reduce the cost of mining raw materials.
“In the 2030s, it will be relatively cheap to live at a level that is considered luxurious today,” is another prediction.
Entertainment where we “intuit” every thought
The human brain will be enhanced by “nanotechnology”, making new forms of entertainment possible, Kurzweil believes.
The futurologist foreshadows that entertainment will consist of transferring “every thought from one’s head to someone else’s.”
At the same time, the brain will be improved by “harmless nanoscale electrodes inserted into the brain through the bloodstream.”
“Freed from the confines of our skulls and processed on a substrate millions of times faster than biological tissue, our minds will be empowered to grow exponentially, ultimately expanding our intelligence millions of times over.” the futurologist predicted.
