What if humans were to completely eliminate the process of aging in, say, the next ten or twenty years (probably before the technological singularity)?
What would be the worldwide consequences of such a development?
Would the elimination of aging, and thereby the elimination of death, ultimately, have good or bad consequences?
Well, I hate to suggest such horrible expectations, but I fear that the following would occur, over time: Overpopulation, insurmountable taxing of natural resources, mounting tensions leading to unbridled war, and more death than what happened naturally prior to the elimination of aging. I suspect that the only thing that could prevent these inevitabilities would be the development of space travel sufficient to reduce earth's bio-load, and the massive reduction of our collective carbon footprint by emerging green technology.
Many forward-thinking scientists are looking into solutions that would strengthen the brain by reinforcing its neurons with non-biological neurons made from carbon nanotubes.
These new artificial neurons would not only act as electrical bypass circuitry, giving patients a ‘fail-safe’ system should their brain become damaged, but would also enhance performance of healthy cells, providing ‘superhuman’ brain functions. Thoughts could be processed millions of times faster.
Speakers at the 7th Annual Singularity Summit predict a future in which everyone lives forever and the intelligence of man and machine fuse to usher in a new "human-machine civilization."...
Computing ability and technological innovation have been increasing exponentially over the past few decades, Ray stated, alongside similar increases in life expectancy and income.
A new video called “The Future Is Ours” inspires a positive view of the future. It shows a sincere hope in technology with a mashup of presentations, speeches, and YouTube videos.
Michael Marantz, who created the video, wrote in the comments, “The future excites me so much, that is why I made this video. We need to be inspired by the immense possibilities of the future and work extremely hard to achieve them. We can do it, we just have to commit."
One of the more promising developments in the field of medical technology involves the use of microspheres for targeted drug delivery. In a nutshell, this encompasses creating tiny hollow balls that are filled with a specific drug, which travel directly to a specific organ or area of diseased tissue. Once there, the spheres release their medication, keeping it concentrated where it’s needed while sparing other tissue from any harmful side effects.
Recently, a team of scientists from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces devised a new method of manufacturing such microspheres, which is said to offer several advantages over existing techniques.
Medical researchers expect that with whole genome sequencing, treatment will be tailored to an individual tumor’s mutations, with drugs, eventually, that hit several key aberrant genes at once.
What is important, the researchers say, is the genes that drive a cancer, not the tissue or organ — liver or brain, bone marrow, blood or colon — where the cancer originates.
Many people believe that we’ve run out of ideas and that the future will be one of bleak shortages of food, energy, and water. Billionaire Peter Thiel, for example, argues that despite spectacular advances in computer-related fields, technological progress has actually stalled because the internal combustion engine still rules our highways, the cancer death rate has barely changed since 1971, and the top speed at which people can travel has ceased to improve.
"No one is better at predicting the future" than Ray Kurzweil.
~Bill Gates
Humans are continually changing their own world and positions. We transcend limitations far more successfully than any other species. As we push developing technologies further, we are approaching a time when the difference between human and machine is no longer a meaningful distinction. This time has been dubbed 'the Singularity' by Ray Kurzweil, one of society's most credible and well-known futurists.
In this interview, Ray talks about how the technology he has predicted will change the face of life and death. Though the report focuses closely on his desire to create an avatar of his dead father, keep in mind that is just one aspect of the ideas.
As we develop software to help store our life experiences, we begin to share our consciousness with machines. Futurists, such as Ray Kurzweil, believe that one day we will be able to essentially upload ourselves into digital format.
This may indefinitely extend the time period we experience personal consciousness. If your personality is digital, is it 'you?' Will this constitute 'living forever?' And how about the implications for population management, if people fit on hard drives...
Read more abou a new prototype software called Lifebrowser, which uses artificial intelligence to help you revisit important events, photos, and e-mails from your own life...
FutureMed 2013 has officially arrived. On Monday, Singularity University kicked off day one at their NASA Moffet Field campus, a stone’s throw from Hangar One and the NASA Ames Research Center. Seventy-five years ago this place housed giant airships—now the tech is smaller and exponentially more powerful. Which, of course, is what FutureMed is all about.
To open the program, Director of FutureMed, Daniel Kraft, set the tone by delivering a whirlwind tour of exponential technologies and their impact on medicine and healthcare in the 21st century.
Kraft said, “We’ve been flying blind.” But that’s changing fast. He went on to note how information technology is the basis of a vast and growing sensor network, connected real time at the speed of light. Smartphones can give EKG readouts or take blood sugar levels—and are increasingly able to analyze the data, provide initial diagnoses, and involve healthcare professionals as needed.
Ra Ra Riot drew inspiration from "the works of cyberpunk novelist William Gibson and futurist Ray Kurzweil's musings on technological singularity and transhumanism," according to a press release. Sounds like a bit of a departure from their nautical beginnings.
Wired talks to the experts about what to expect from the future of the human ability...
Aubrey de Grey Chief science officer, SENS Foundation "Medicine is distinct from human enhancement, but they may intersect. Somatic gene therapy will treat many diseases including the defeat of aging, but also allow such enhancements as skin luminescence. Tissue engineering may also allow us to have gills. The sky is the limit."
A few weeks ago, PBS NewsHour ran a 10-minute piece with Kurzweil titled “As Humans and Computers Merge…Immortality?” from correspondent Paul Solman for his economics-focused Making Sen$e of Financial News.
Solman probes Kurzweil for some insights about where technology is headed in the coming decades, covering topics like artificial intelligence, extending lifespans through supplementation, and digital resurrection of the deceased as avatars.
According to inventor/author Ray Kurzweil, eternal life is now actually on the horizon -- the near horizon. He predicts that by 2029, biomedical technology will be extending longevity faster than we age.
The German robotics company Festo recently unveiled the ExoHand, a sophisticated robotic hand that is capable of the fine motor skills that allows the human hand to have a delicate touch or perform complex manipulations.
The ExoHand comes in two forms: as the extremity of a robotic arm or a wearable exoskeleton glove.
Twenty years ago U.S. healthcare cost $2800, on average, per person. Ten years ago, that figure had risen to $4700 per person. And four years ago, in 2008, it was $7500 per person. (From exhibit 4A in this Kaiser Family Foundation Report.) Over the same period, the portion of Americans without insurance has risen. In 1990, 14.1 percent of Americans were uninsured. In 2000, 13.1 percent were uninsured.
Today, 16.3% of Americans are uninsured (approximately 50 million people), in part because of job losses and employers cutting back on coverage.
At the same time the number of uninsured has risen, there have been stunning innovations in healthcare
Could Science Exchange become the Ebay of scientific research? This new marketplace helps to accelerate scientific studies by supporting collaboration and allowing researchers to share, buy and sell resources.
They vet providers, handle the monetary transactions, curate a rating system for each provider (and researcher), help providers publicize availability, and can sometimes track down exact providers...
"Electrical engineer Ada Poon has developed a tiny, wirelessly powered, self-propelled medical device capable of controlled motion through the bloodstream.
Poon, an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering, is developing a new class of medical devices that can be implanted or injected into the human body and powered wirelessly using radio waves. No batteries to wear out. No cables to provide power...."
Imagine the apps that we could load into this little device. You could check your blood sugar, monitor your cholesterol, watch your weight, even do routine maintenance to the arteries and organs. You'd never forget to take a pill again.
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