here are some nuggets of GOLD.
predictions for what the world has in store for us.
+ w/ in 2 decades we will have a detailed understanding of how all the regions of the human brain work.
+ we will have the requisite hardware to emulate human intelligence w/ supercomputers by the end of the decade.
+ we will have effective software models of human intelligence by the mid-2020's.
+ by the end of the 2020's artificial intelligence will be able to pass the Turing Test ( a test devised to distinguish machine intelligence from human/biological intelligence) as in A robot will be able to pass itself off as a BIOLOGICAL HUMAN.
+ having achieved this level of development computers will be able to combine traditional strengths of human intelligence with the strengths of machine intelligence.
+ once machines achieve the ability to design and engineer technology as humans do, only at far higher speeds and capacities, they will access to their own designs and the ability to manipulate them. machines will be able to build themselves free of human interference. essentially evolving themselves.
+ nanotechnology will enable the design of nanobots: robots designed at the molecular level which will have the ability to work inside our bodies in theory reversing human ageing.
+ nanobots will interact with biological neurons to vastly extend human experience by creating virtual reality form within the nervous system !!!!
+ as virtual reality from w/in the nervous system becomes competative with real reality in terms of resolution and believability, our experiences will increasingly take place in virtual environments. second life anyone?
+ in virtual reality we can be a different person both physically and emotionally. In fact, other people ( such as yr girl/boy/friend) will be able to select a different body for you than you might select for yrself.
These are just some thoughts from a Mr. Ray Kurzweil which i've paraphrased.
what do you think? will we become machine hybrids? do you care?
are our mobile phones and growing dependence on social networking sites like this the start of this next phase of human civilization?
well......anyway have a fun friday night everyone. i leave you with these words from old mate Winston Churchill:
"THE FURTHER BACKWARD YOU LOOK< THE FURTHER FORWARD YOU CAN SEE"
x