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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:10 pm Post subject: The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least |
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Do you have trouble sticking to a diet? Have patience. Within 10 years, Dr. Kurzweil explained, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want without gaining weight.
Worried about greenhouse gas emissions? Have faith. Solar power may look terribly uneconomical at the moment, but with the exponential progress being made in nanoengineering, Dr. Kurzweil calculates that it�ll be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in just five years, and that within 20 years all our energy will come from clean sources.
Are you depressed by the prospect of dying? Well, if you can hang on another 15 years, your life expectancy will keep rising every year faster than you�re aging. And then, before the century is even half over, you can be around for the Singularity, that revolutionary transition when humans and/or machines start evolving into immortal beings with ever-improving software.
At least that�s Dr. Kurzweil�s calculation. It may sound too good to be true, but even his critics acknowledge he�s not your ordinary sci-fi fantasist. He is a futurist with a track record and enough credibility for the National Academy of Engineering to publish his sunny forecast for solar energy.
He makes his predictions using what he calls the Law of Accelerating Returns, a concept he illustrated at the festival with a history of his own inventions for the blind. In 1976, when he pioneered a device that could scan books and read them aloud, it was the size of a washing machine. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/science/03tier.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Science will push us forward. I was watching old Star Trek last night.. We have space travel, "communicators", sliding doors, scanners etc. Much of what was on that show is possible, even the transporter (which is being built, though only for single celled organisms) and the shows writers were thinking many hundreds of years in the future. |
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Khenan
Joined: 25 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:22 am Post subject: |
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I've been looking forward to becoming a cyborg for years now. I've also been looking forward to living to be at least 350. I'm glad some one else is on the same boat with me  |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:58 am Post subject: |
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Agreed. I don't wanna die. The one big problem with atheism is that is requires ones to jettison any delusions that there is more than this. You die, you turn to dust.
Reminds me of something Warren Buffett said. He was asked how he wanted people to remember him when he died. He replied "God, he was old". |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
Agreed. I don't wanna die. The one big problem with atheism is that is requires ones to jettison any delusions that there is more than this. You die, you turn to dust.
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At the end of it all we're just another species of animal. |
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