Comments on: Kurzweil: 'Exponential' change ahead for games, people

Renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil explains how tech will give people superhuman abilities and near immortality.

[ewelch]

Dreamer

He's always been so full of it. Talking ahead of the curve. Funny
how his book quite a few years ago didn't contain the same
projections as these. And his assumption that Moore's law will
continue apace forever is nonsense too. It's not a law to begin
with.

There are limits and they just haven't been reached yet. He's
been predicting immortality for years and years. And now that
people know he previous road to immortality (make a copy of
yourselves and let that copy live forever) doesn't mean we live
forever, he's simply outrunning biology. It would be cool, but
sorry. There's no evidence that what he's saying is true. Shoot,
how long have we been working on a cure for so many cancers?
We can't find a vaccine for AIDS? Things don't always go
according to plan.

[xsmillions]

Hilarious...

There is, of course, one redeeming fact buried in your comment. With RK's work, things may not actually end up where he is imagining - after all, it's not like he has perfect knowledge of the circumstances he describes. Most likely, though, we will end 70%, 80% or 90% of the way there, thanks to the contribution of people who combine foresight and imagination with action and resources. I doubt we will be able to say nearly the same of the people who follow your line of thinking. Isn't Darwin great?

[chash360]

Actually its possible already...

There is no physical law that prevents a biological organism from living forever. Our genetics are coded for aging and death, change that code and you change how it functions. They have already gene spliced mice to regrow any damaged tissue, perfectly without scare tissue, going so far as to take pieces out of the mouse's heart and have it regenerate back to 100% health.

Complete regeneration and healing is possible, telemerase being a key component. As well as the control of cascading aging genes.

There really is no need for cloning and harvesting organs or other feable means of health care once the full function of genetic codes are truly understood, its literally the programming of life.

That does not mean you will live forever, if you get tossed into a meat grinder you will still die.

There is already a proven treatment to prevent the spread of AIDS, again using genetic splicing of an algea with Tabcco plants of all things, although curing the already infected is still not there yet (that I know of). And when that treatment becomes available you you will not be able to produce it yourself, because you are not allowed to grow Tobacco in the U.S. unless you are a sanctioned Tobacco company. (see how that works).

Unfortunately all of these works are contested by religous groups, and in some cases drug companies, who desparately don't want actual cures, they want profitable, patentable treatments.

No one funds research on cures, its all about treatments. If you actually found a one-shot cheap cure to specific type of cancer, you would disappear the day after you annouced it. And then be bashed the next day as a fraud. (think cold fusion, then actually look it up)

After that there is always the issue of over population to consider.....

[azareus]

Stretch goals Break Limits

Stretch goals help push the agenda. They can't always be achieved. Without trying, much less is usually achieved because of lack of impetus/drive...

http://cognitivelabs.com/kurzweil.htm
kurzweil 'game'

[anthonykuhn]

Why Ray Rules

I think we need big idea-focused people who can see what we refuse to, like Ray. Anyone can be a naysayer and poo-poo ideas like the telephone, electricity, or flushing toilets, but it takes someone like him to see beyond what is easy to imagine and really project possibility into reality. I liked to this piece in my blog at the Innovators-Network so my readers can get some inspiration from Ray's big vision for the future and maybe put their business skills to work capitalizing on what might be instead of dragging through life caught in the what was or is.