All hail to Ray Kurzweil!
Ray Kurzweil is a major visionary and forward thinker, but not in that informercial, motivational-speaker kind of way. He's just an incredibly intelligent guy who has the ability to look at the world from outside the mold (or box if you prefer the cliche term). Here is an interview with him that examines what life might be like in the next 20-30 years. I like how the article starts in the present (discussing productivity and job outsourcing) and then slowly progresses into the future. To give you a taste of Mr. Kurzweil's thinking:
"I take 250 supplements a day. I'm really reprogramming my biochemistry. A lot of people think it's good to be natural. I don't think it's good because biological evolution is not on our side. It's in the interest of our species for people past child-rearing age not to stick around, at least in an era of scarcity, and our biological program hasn't changed since we lived in an era of scarcity. We have a lot of outmoded programs in our genes. One says, "Hold on to every calorie because the next hunting season might be fallow." These are all programs that need to be changed. We have a lot of aging processes that really accelerate when we get into our 50s and 60s, and I'm working aggressively to reverse those."
http://www.cio.com/archive/101504/interview.html
Needless to say the man is brilliant. Computers and technology have allowed us to enhance our knowledge. As a result they have taken a prime spot in many people's lives - we use them for work, learning and personal growth, communication and entertainment. How cool would it be to have the ability to have instant access to the entire English dictionary and be able to perfectly express oneself at any occasion? What about every dictionary out there? Who needs a translator if we inherently understand what someone is saying in a different language? And that is but a grain of sand of what is possible.
I tell ya, if there is any reason to live longer than our one life it would be to see how technology develops and be able to consistently enhance our knowledge and understanding of the world. Long live progress! :)
"I take 250 supplements a day. I'm really reprogramming my biochemistry. A lot of people think it's good to be natural. I don't think it's good because biological evolution is not on our side. It's in the interest of our species for people past child-rearing age not to stick around, at least in an era of scarcity, and our biological program hasn't changed since we lived in an era of scarcity. We have a lot of outmoded programs in our genes. One says, "Hold on to every calorie because the next hunting season might be fallow." These are all programs that need to be changed. We have a lot of aging processes that really accelerate when we get into our 50s and 60s, and I'm working aggressively to reverse those."
http://www.cio.com/archive/101504/interview.html
Needless to say the man is brilliant. Computers and technology have allowed us to enhance our knowledge. As a result they have taken a prime spot in many people's lives - we use them for work, learning and personal growth, communication and entertainment. How cool would it be to have the ability to have instant access to the entire English dictionary and be able to perfectly express oneself at any occasion? What about every dictionary out there? Who needs a translator if we inherently understand what someone is saying in a different language? And that is but a grain of sand of what is possible.
I tell ya, if there is any reason to live longer than our one life it would be to see how technology develops and be able to consistently enhance our knowledge and understanding of the world. Long live progress! :)
posted by z @ 5:59 PM
2 Comments:
At 11:58 PM,
Anonymous said…
Ok, so I have to admit, I was biased from the very first quote (about it being in the best interest of the species for people past child-rearing ages to not stick around). Humans are pretty unique in having such a long post-menopausal life-span, not even chimps have it. It took time to evolve and its there for a reason. Kurzweil's flub up in this sense makes me think that the rest of his predictions are quite limited in their scope--he's only seeing the technology, and very little of the physiology or psychology.
I really really really recommend "Grandmothering and the evolution of Homo erectus" by...a ton of people. Journal of Human Evolution, vol 36, pp461-485. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get it online w/out a subscription. Of course, there's also Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. He's been writing the exact same ideas, with complete social effects into his fiction for years. Hell, the two of them probably do brunch once a month or something, their ideas are so similar.
It's really nice to see people be so optimistic though, especially when it's people that know what they're talking about (if this dude says the tech is going to happen, I'll believe him).
Oops. That was long.
E.
At 2:04 AM,
z said…
Yes, he certainly only looks at things from a single-minded point of view - how can technology enhance our knowledge. I think it would be fair to say that he sees knowledge (and thus technology) as a way to achieve enlightenment. It certainly is not the only way. I had some interesting conversations with Gian on this subject - achieving englightenment through external (technology) versus internal (spiritual) paths.
I tend to be a pragmatist so whatever works is great. On a personal level the spiritual path may indeed be a better (more attainable) path. On a societal level I think that technology offers a much better approach. It moves much slower, but offers a multitude of gifts along the way that guarantee its survival. History (and perhaps evolution) has tended to award societies that focused on external (technology), rather than internal (spiritual). In a dog-eat-dog world (in which we live) being spiritual and peaceful usually means being conquered by technology wielding, resource hungry neighbours.
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