A technology expert experienced in predicting sea changes in the industry has made some stunning new predictions in a new book.
Google’s Ray Kurzweil famously predicted the iPhone era and the fact that by 1998 a computer would beat someone at chess.
In his new book, “The Singularity is Nearer,” Kurzweil predicts that by 2045, humans will fully merge with AI and become immortal cyborgs.
He also predicts that advances in AI will make it possible to resurrect loved ones and connect our brains to cloud technology, in what he calls the “fifth epoch” of human intelligence.
Singularity is the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually surpass human intelligence and fundamentally change human existence.
Kurzweil writes, “Babies born today will only be graduating from college when the Singularity occurs.
“Nanotechnology will ultimately enable these trends to culminate by directly augmenting our brains with layers of virtual neurons in the cloud.
“This is how we connect with AI. These are the most exciting years in history.”
He says recent breakthroughs in AI, such as ChatGPT, show that his 2005 prediction in his first book, “The Singularity Is Near,” was correct and “the trajectory is clear.”
His most shocking predictions are below:
The dead will come back to life
Kurzweil believes that AI technology holds the promise of “bringing back” the dead — first in the form of simulations that replicate a person, then physically back to life.
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Kurzweil’s attempts to “bring back” his father — who died when Kurzweil was 22 — using AI began more than 10 years ago.
Kurzweil created a replicant of his father by feeding the AI system his father’s letters, essays, and musical compositions.
He writes: “We are already creating an enormously rich record of how we think about what we feel through our digital activities.
“And during this decade, our technology for recording, storing and organizing this information will advance rapidly.”
By the end of 2020, Kurzweil expects “highly realistic” non-biological recreations of people — and then living bodies.
He writes: ‘Eventually, replicants can be housed in cybernetically augmented biological bodies grown from the original person’s DNA.’
Kurzweil predicts that humans will move into artificial bodies “more advanced than biology allows” – and that by the 2040s it will be possible to create a copy of a person.
People will be a million times smarter
Kurzeil says we’re about to enter a “fifth epoch” of intelligence where humans connect with machines—triggered by the advent of human-level artificial intelligence and brain chips like Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Kurzweil believes that in the years after 2029, human intelligence will multiply a millionfold by connecting human beings directly to machines.
He writes: “A key capability in the 2030s will be to connect the upper regions of our neocortices to the cloud, which will directly expand our thinking.
“That way, rather than AI being a competitor, it becomes an extension of us.”
Immortality begins in 2030
Kurzweil predicts that humans will begin to reach the “escape velocity” for immortality by 2030.
This will be supported by huge leaps forward in medical treatment.
By 2030, he writes, AI biosimulators will conduct clinical trials in hours rather than years – leading to new drugs and longevity treatments.
Back-up technology, which he describes as a “fourth bridge” where people can “back-up” with technology.
He writes: “The long-term goal is medical nanorobots. These will be made of diamondoid parts with on-board sensors, manipulators, computers, communicators and possibly power sources.
Life will be cheaper – and easier
Kurzweil believes that technology will revolutionize everyday life, and robots will be able to build skyscrapers incredibly quickly using 3D printers to produce construction parts.
Further breakthroughs driven by artificial intelligence will reduce the price of solar energy through breakthroughs in photovoltaics – lowering the price of energy.
Meanwhile, breakthroughs in robotic mining will reduce the cost of mining raw materials.
He writes: “In the 1930s it will be relatively cheap to live at a level that is considered luxury today.
Entertainment where we “feel” every thought
Kurzweil believes that human brains will be upgraded with “nanotechnology” that will enable new forms of entertainment.
Kurzweil says that fun eventually puts “every thought in someone’s head into yours.”
He writes that brains will be upgraded with “harmless nanoelectrodes inserted into the brain through the bloodstream.”
He writes: ‘Freed from the confines of our skulls and processed on a substrate a million times faster than biological tissue, our minds will be empowered to grow exponentially, ultimately expanding our intelligence a millionfold.’