What lies ahead in the world of technology is truly the billion dollar question: if you knew what technology would be the next big thing, you would make an absolute fortune.
Some of the big advances right now are in wearable VR technology, although we haven’t really gotten to the issue of how ridiculous you look wearing it.
Meanwhile, it seems like the world and its aunt are jumping on the AI bandwagon without really thinking about what we’re doing in a bigger picture.
If only we could know where all this is going to end up, that would be wonderful, but for now, predictions are the best we have.
One of the most famous in the field is the “tech prophet” Ray Kurzweil, who correctly predicted that computers would become so good at chess that they could beat grandmasters, that the Internet would become hugely successful, and who predicted the iPhone.
He successfully predicted a number of technological advances, including the iPhone. (Frazer Harrison/WireImage)
Predictions for AI
It is perhaps a little worrying that in his new book The singularity is closer, He predicts that humanity will merge with AI by 2045 and become immortal cyborgs.
I don’t want to sound skeptical, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
According to the Daily Mail, he also made other predictions about technological developments that could await us.
Another of his big plans is that AI will resurrect the dead, in a way, by simulating someone’s personality.
Kurzweil suggests that eventually, these AI replicas of a deceased person could be placed in functioning bodies, meaning no one is ever truly gone if they don’t want to be.
It may sound crazy, but experts have warned of the dangers of AI leading to this, saying we need to guard against an “emerging digital afterlife industry.”
Ray Kurzweil has made other predictions, including that we will eventually become immortal cyborgs. (Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A rise in intelligence
He also believes that humans will become much smarter because we will be able to connect directly to machines.
Some technologies now allow people to directly control computers with their minds, but Kurzweil thinks we could merge with AI to dramatically increase our brain power.
All I’ll say about this is that I’ve seen a lot of science fiction and people who connect their brains directly to technology rarely end up well.
He believes that although we will become a race of immortal cyborgs by 2045, the path to immortality will really begin in 2030, as AI can speed up the medical research process and help develop new treatments and drugs in a short time.
In a slightly less dystopian vein, he also suggested that life would become cheaper and easier as more of our activities were automated to support our needs.
So that’s nice.
