Monday night I went with a friend to a lecture by Ray Kurzweil, famed futurist, inventor, author, generally smart guy. It was very interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean crazy, far-out, messed-up, and weird.
He said that in 5 years we will be wearing computers in our clothes, have virtual reality devices readily available, and be able to surf the web without a computer. By 2020 there will be all kinds of crazy stuff like nano-bot red blood cells that are able to carry like 1000x the oxygen as our regular blood cells.
The whole first part of his presentation was fact-based, and so when he transitioned to these grand predictions, it made it seem like fact too...if you weren't thinking too much. Very tricky. I think these things will happen, but I have a hard time believing that they will happen in my lifetime. He says technology growth is exponential and will continue to be.
Seriously, hearing his presentation made me want to go out and buy all kinds of tech, bio-tech, nano-tech stock. Part of me thinks -oh my gosh, I could really cash in on this. The other part of me thinks-this is crazy and I'll be throwing my money away. I think the truth is somewhere between the two, but probably closer to the first thought.
Well, it really stuck in my mind, so I wanted to share. I also got to ask him a question about the social and ethical issues involved with these emerging technologies, and he seemed a little flustered by it. Go me. Of course, I was setting him up for my friend so she could take notes on what he said (and what by inference, he didn't say).
1 comment:
I'm still waiting for my flying car and aerial highways that were promised by the year 2000. I want my flying car!
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