The Monday mindset: 5 June 2017
21st century ploy, I want to be your joy
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye.
This week, we sum up the predictions made by Google’s illustrious chief futurist, Ray Kurzweil, on what awaits us this century.
2019 Farewell cables. Personal and peripheral gadgets go completely wireless.
2020 Personal computers have the computational power comparable to a human brain.
2021 Wireless internet access covers 85% of the planet.
2022 Robot laws introduced in Europe and the US to regulate the relationship between humans and robots and define the robots’ rights and responsibilities.
2024 Intelligent cars – elements of computer intellect built into every car. People are not allowed to drive cars that are do not have computer assistants.
2025 Mass market for implant gadgets.
2027 Personal robot assistants are as common as a fridge or a coffee machine.
2028 Going solar – solar energy is so cheap and accessible that it sufficiently addresses the energy needs of the entire humankind.
2029 A computer passes the Turing test, proving it has intellect and cognitive capacity in the human sense of these words. This is done thanks to the computer simulation of the human brain.
2030 Nanotechnologies boom – nanotechnologies in manufacturing result in significant decrease in production costs.
2031 3D printers for human organs available in all hospitals.
2032 Nanorobots applied in healthcare, bringing nutrition directly to human cells and cleaning up the waste. Nanorobots also help conduct a much more detailed scan of the human brain, which will advance our understanding of it significantly.
2033 Self-driving cars en masse.
2035 Asteroids be gone! The space technology becomes so advanced that it is able to fully protect the Earth from any asteroids.
2036 By applying the programming approach to biology, we can programme the cells to fight diseases; and 3D printers create new tissue and organs.
2037 Gigantic leap in understanding the human brain – scientists discover hundreds of sub-sections of the brain with specialised functions. Some of the algorithms that code the development of these sections are decoded and included in neural computer networks.
2038 Robotic humans – humans who are equipped with additional intellect (for example, for a specific science or scientific subject that a human brain cannot embrace in its entirety) and/or physical implants (e.g. an eye which is a camera, additional artificial limbs).
2039 Nano-machines implanted directly into human brain – bringing signals into/out of the brain directly. This means a person can immerse fully into virtual reality (VR) without any gadgets.
2040 Search engine-based gadgets implanted into human body. The search is initiated not just by speaking, but also by a thought. The results are brought up onto the screen on the contact lenses or glasses.
2041 Internet bandwidth is x500 it is today.
2042 A step towards immortality – an army of nano-robots augment our immune systems and help clean up our bodies from diseases.
2043 Human body can take any shape – also thanks to a large number of nano-robots. Our internal organs are substituted by cybernetics of much higher quality.
2044 Non-biological intellect is billions times more cognitive than a biological one.
2045 Technological singularity: our planet turns into one giant computer.
2099 Technological singularity across the universe.
Sounds crazy in places? We might be able to live long enough to see these things happening. Kurzweil himself plans to live forever – and he has developed a special diet to achieve this. Google it!
Last week was a public holiday, but two weeks ago our Monday mindset briefly looked at artificial intelligence (AI) and job security.
If you’re interested in contributing to our Monday mindset, contact our editorial team.
