The near-term inevitability of radical life extension and expansion by Ray Kurzweil:
It took 15 years to sequence HIV and from that perspective the genome project seemed impossible in 1990. But the amount of genetic data we were able to sequence doubled every year while the cost came down by half each year.
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If we think linearly, then the idea of turning off all disease and aging processes appears far off into the future just as the genome project did in 1990. On the other hand, if we factor in the doubling of the power of these technologies each year, the prospect of radical life extension is only a couple of decades away.
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If we think linearly, then the idea of turning off all disease and aging processes appears far off into the future just as the genome project did in 1990. On the other hand, if we factor in the doubling of the power of these technologies each year, the prospect of radical life extension is only a couple of decades away.
KurzweilAI.net includes many articles on Kurzweil’s ideas, by him, and others. Major topic areas include: Nanotechnology, Will Machines Become Conscious? and Singularity. The ideas can seem crazy but as Kurzweil discusses the ability to predict with the tremendous increase in the power of technology. I still think many things like radical life extension is unlikely so soon but the ideas presented are interesting and worth thinking about.
Related: Grand Visions – Millennials in our Lifetime?
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