14 DAY TRIAL // The futuristic prediction of Ray Kurzweil had students standing on edge at the Georgia Technology Summit. He surprised a lot of people by making somewhat believable, yet still outrageous claims that we'll have interwoven technology with biochemistry.
"Computers as we know them will largely disappear by 2010 and be replaced by computers in our clothing as society moves toward developments that could include the injection of robotic white blood cells into humans and a complete digital mapping of the brain before 2030," futurist Ray Kurzweil said.
A noteworthy addition to his predictions was the he said the development of technology is advancing at such a pace that by the end of the 21st century the rate of innovation will be about 20,000 times its rate in 2000. One of the most startling technological developments will be the ability to understand how human brains operate and to use that knowledge to improve health and the ability to process information.
The Singularity Is Near, Ray's latest book, predicts the melding of technology into humans that could extend life indefinitely. "The design of the brain is in the genome. The genome has very little complexity with some 30 to 40 million bytes of information. That's less than Microsoft Word."
Don't think that these are just wild rants, they come from a very educated and informed individual. An extraordinary developer of innovative technologies, including the first reading machine for the blind, Kurzweil has received 12 honorary doctorates, seven national and international film awards and was inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame in 2002. He was the recipient of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT, the nation's largest award in invention and innovation, as well as the 1999 National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology. So Mr. Kurzweil does know a thing or two of what he's talking about.