I’m talking about Kurzweil. Raymond Kurzweil.
And when I said everybody, I actually meant me, myself and I.
But then, I sat down and thought about it some more, and found it fair to throw in a couple of neuroscientists, a dozen or more engineers, a spattering of anti-technology activists, and a hundred or more religious zealots. Not to forget, Bill Joy.
Who Is Raymond Kurzweil And Why Do So Many Folks Dislike Him?
Well, for starters, I don’t dislike him, nor do I hate him (neither do many of those nice folks above I tried to frame). Quite the opposite actually - I’m in awe of him.
And I’m usually very envious of people I’m in awe of. That’s when my noggin’ tricks me into believing that I hate them, when really, all I want to do is to walk in their shoes. Those are some big shoes to fill, I know, but it’s just for a day.
Just for a day, to feel what it’s like to walk in the shoes of some of the brightest people on the planet today. For that’s who polymath inventor Raymond Kurzweil is – one of the brightest people on the planet today.
At an age when most boys were burying their heads in Archie comics, Ray Kurzweil had already developed a software program which IBM themselves distributed. Kurzweil was 12 then.
At 60, Kurzweil is continuing to push the boundaries of technological innovation. The trail of inventions he has left behind is mind-jarring.
From his Reading Machine for the blind, to his synthesizers used by music legends like Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder, Kurzweil has caught the attention of the uninitiated to the sophistication of modern technology – winning the National Medal of Technology in the process.
The Singularity Is Near
Today, like Proteus rising from the sea, Ray Kurzweil is adored as a paladin of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Observed to be a genius with a vatic fervor and armed with his Law of Accelerating Returns, he has been able to predict technological breakthroughs with propitious results.
One such prediction is that by the 2020s, we will all be strolling along with billions of nanobots (nonbiological copies of the human brain) plugged into our brains, a transhumanism Kurzweil calls Singularity.
The repercussions of that taking place are terrifying. Just imagine the SATs being scraped from the educational system to be replaced by the Turing Test! - Ok, saw what I did there, I just made a scientific jape (Hey! Save your tomatoes for a rainy day with them food shortages and all!).
Anyways, Singularity, as Kurzweil defines it in an interview with Glenn Reynolds is:
“a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.”
Now, from where I’m sitting, that sounds like some scary sci-fi shit. Human life will be irreversibly transformed? Is that even something to look forward to? Are we trying to save the planet for this? My first concern and I don’t mean to sound like a total tool when I ask - is this going to affect me making the beast with two backs, as the Bard used to say?
Putting frivolous anxieties aside for the moment, let’s perch ourselves atop a balustrade and gaze into Kurzweil’s preemptory oracle from the perspective of an entrepreneur. The future is Information Technology and there would hardly be a field that wouldn’t be revolutionized by it. That is the claim of Kurzweil and it’s hardly shocking news, since we’re already living that future right now.
There Can Be No Singularity Without Nanotechnology
But, it’s the biology of business that should be poking us in our spleen and giving us that lump in our throat.
What’s so damn interesting about the biology of business? Well, according to Sandeep Malhotra:
“Living or nonliving, we are all nanosystems. We are all composed of the same matter.”
And nanotechnology as Kurzweil has rightly predicted, is what the British would say, “the bee’s knees.” It’s where the hidden gold is. And this could be attributed to the eventual collapse of Moore’s Law - applicable mainly to silicon-based computer technology. But, more than anything else, it’s Kurzweil’s vision of a more sophisticated advancement of the human species that has disrupted the symbiosis of the business world.
By reverse engineering the human brain, Kurzweil hopes to engineer nanobots to enhance the everyday functionalities of us humans. We’re talking computational systems that operate at more than 10 million times the speed of electrochemical processes in the human brain.
In other words, choosing to be stupid can no longer become a lifestyle choice. All humans will have access to superior intelligence simply by having these nanobots implanted in our brains.
Cellphones might also become redundant if, Kurzweil’s vision of the future materializes. Reason being, we’ll all possess the ability to interact in a virtual environment at a location of our choice. Meaning, your girlfriend could be in Paris and you in New York, but you’ll be able to meet in Seychelles virtually in seconds for a bit of snogging if you so choose.
Geez, come to think of it, this “human life will be irreversibly transformed” dingus ain’t as bad as it sounds.
If you’re excited as I am now about what Kurzweil’s future has in store for you, then the good news is, we’re already interacting with nanotechnology in everyday items like fuel cells, golf balls, car trimmings and tennis racquets.
The rush to get nanotechnology to the marketplace isn’t out of necessity, though.
Rather, its commercial viability is quickly coming into focus. If you’re gunning for new investment and business opportunities, it’ll be worth your time to peek into this sector. The Russians are already plumbing it for all its worth. And we all know how intuitive these Russians are where technology is concerned.
If you’re interested in what the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress has to say about nanotechnology, then you might want to read their report – The Future Is Coming Sooner Than You Think.
Everybody Might Love Raymond Afterall
History is littered with brilliant minds and innovators who have surprised our forefathers with inventions that have ultimately paved the high-tech road we’re standing on today. One such luminary that immediately springs to mind is one of America’s most beloved inventors - Thomas Edison.
Few have heard of Fra Luca Pacioli, the inventor of double-entry book-keeping; but he has probably had much more influence on human life than has Dante or Michelangelo.
- Uses of the Past (1957) ch. 8
So, may I be so bold as to suggest that it’ll only be a matter of time before America speaks about Raymond Kurzweil in the same breath. The mensch may have his critics, but which man with a chimerical vision of the future doesn’t.
Oh, by the way, here are your shoes back, Mr. Kurzweil. I think I’ll just stick to languishing in idle ruminations while playing the role of third-party imprimatur as I await your future to unfold, thank you very much.
Your Motivational Proverb For Today - Crowded elevator smell different to midget.
