We had author, futurist, inventor Ray Kurzweil on the show last week, who claims that information technology grows exponentially. In simple terms, the rate of change speeds up each year.
Kurzweil hypothesizes that in 20 years we’ll have computers that can simulate our brains, and ultimately we’ll all be able to upload our brains to the big computer in the sky and, essentially, live forever.
Jaron Lanier, who we’ve had on CyberFrequencies twice in a row now, says that the promise of eternal life has been the tool of charlatans since time began. He’s one of the fathers of virtual reality, and he points out that if you really want someone tinkering with your brain – first demonstrate you can control your privacy settings of Facebook. Good point.
For those of us who will be old geezers by the time the singularity hits -- Kurzweil says we’ll also be able to can reverse the aging process – and in fact you can already do so, he claims, through supplements (which apparently he takes handfuls of every day).
Johanna Blakley, Deputy Director of the Normal Lear Center, is a big fan of Kurzweil and the Singulary. What does she think of reversing the aging process? “Well I read about it all the time in Vogue Magazine, but nothing I’ve ever tried works.”
