Almost everyone in the world is filled with uncertainty about the future as the epidemic/pandemic hits new countries and vaccines are not yet available. The truth about this virus is that it is gradually crumbling the economy it hits and leaves the citizens less concerned about the future but rather concerned about survival. As much as the virus takes a long hit on human, it is no doubt that we will get through it as we have gotten over several pandemic, so many other people are still looking into the future so that when we overcome the virus, we do not go back to the stone age.
The immediate future and the next few decades for humanity will be very dynamic and that is why a lot of people have been looking into the future of humanity as well as the technological singularity and one of this people is Ray Kurzweil.
*Image from wikipedia
Why Ray Kurzweil
The 72 year old American inventor and futurist involved in the world of technology from text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, electronic keyboard, has proven to be an expert in predicting things that haven’t happened yet. The futurist have gotten a lot of his predictions on technological and social advancement right. He has made 147 predictions in the machine age and 86%of his predictions came out correct.
In 1990, Ray Kurzweil predicted the computers will be the best player before the year 2000, and it happened that in May 1997 even before the year 2000, Garry Kasparov the best chess player was defeated by IBM’s computer in a tournament.
Ray Kurzweil predicted that the internet will become a thing for every human being even when the internet wasn’t used by up to 3 million people worldwide. Currently, the world cannot do without the internet. Ray also did well by predicting there will be speech detection software, computers in classroom and many more and they came just as he said them.
Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions for the future
For someone with a 50% success in prediction, it could be very shaky to trust the words of the person, but for Ray, it is rather going to be a thing of study since he gets most right. Ray has predicted a lot in the future and it is hopeful that they happen
Renewable Energy
Ray has been very optimistic that by the year 2030, the world will be using renewable energy for virtually everything. Although it is visible that oil is fetching a lot of money for the government of many countries and at such are leaving renewable energy to private sectors especially.
Image from Pixabay
Having a world running on renewable energy squarely could be possible in 2030 as people are already building houses with solar panels being roofs so they can harness the power of the sun. It is believed that erecting solar panels in the deserts around the world, is well sufficient to power the entire universe.
We hope the world start using renewable energy in 2030.
Improved Health
Ray predicts that technology will be able to improve the health of human. Ray looks at 2050 as the year when artificial intelligence and robot will be diagnosing patient and suggesting treatment, nanobots becoming a part of every human’s life as they will be injected into the human body to serve as an immune system to fight diseases.
Image from wikipedia
Turing Test for AI
Passing the Turing test by an AI means the artificial intelligence can think like a human and cannot be differentiated by speech. With the Turing test, artificial intelligent power can be tested as the machine exhibit intelligent behavior which cannot be distinguishable from that of a human and which will open the space for AI to think on their own. Ray predicts that AI will pass the Turing test in the year 2029.
Image from pxfuel
A lot of people are scared of a war between humans and machines and have been trying to bring this prediction to a reality slowly but we know it might be possible for to pass the Turing test, and with that, we could make AI think for us and this will lead to the technological singularity.
Hybrid AI/Neoocortex connection in 2030s
Kurzweil has more positive vibes about AI as he believes that technology has always had its good and bad sides and this sides are often determined by human action. Kurzweil says that in the 2030s there will be technology that will allow humans to use their brain to tap directly into the cloud. He says this will be possible with the help of Nanobots. It is believed that the humans will have an expanded brain with this.
Ray Kurzweil’s technological predictions are known to make very correct although, we do not know what the future holds with the coronavirus pandemic hitting hard on people, but we all hope that this passes and we can grow our world better.