I’m in the middle of Ray Kurzweil‘s new book, The Singularity is Near. You’ve probably seen coolmel ranting about this book as of late, and I’ve got to say there is a reason, cause this really is one of the best books I’ve read all year. I ran across some stuff in Chapter 5: GNR, which to me is really a mind-blowing speculation about the future of technology and the ways we’ll be impacted by this technology…
The first half of the twenty-first century will be characterized by three overlapping revolutions—in Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics. … We are in the early stages of the “G” [Genetics/Biotech] revolution today. By understanding the information processes underlying life, we are starting to learn to reprogram our biology to achieve the virtual elimination of disease, dramatic expansion of human potential, and radical life extension. … The “N” [Nanotechnology] revolution will enable us to redesign and rebuild—molecule by molecule—our bodies and brains and the world with which we interact, going far beyond the limitations of biology. The most powerful impending revolution is “R” [Robotics/Strong AI]: human-level robots with their intelligence derived from our own but redesigned to far exceed human capabilities.
So what’s the bad news right? Sounds like some utopian rhetoric doesn’t it? Nope, complications arise from each of these advances.
While each revolution will solve the problems from earlier transformations, it will also introduce new perils. G will overcome the age-old difficulties of disease and aging but establish the potential for new bioengineered viral threats. Once N is fully developed we will be able to apply it to protect ourselves from all biological hazards, but it will create the possibility of its own self-replicating dangers, which will be far more powerful than anything biological. We can protect ourselves from these hazards with fully developed R, but what will protect us from pathological intelligence that exceeds our own? – Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near, p 205-206
Well, it sure won’t be our weenie bodies… But no worries, there’s always Human Body 2.0!
