iStockphoto
Futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has been very good at predicting things over the years, says he thinks that human immortality will be achievable by the year 2030.
“2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an AI will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence,” Kurzweil told Futurism in 2017. “I have set the date 2045 for the ‘Singularity’ which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created.”
Interesting idea, to be sure, but why should anyone believe him?
Well, among the predictions he has gotten correct over the past few decades are and in 1990 he predicted the proliferation of portable computers and smartphones, wireless technology, and the internet basically becoming the center of our universe.
He also predicted in 1990 that a computer would beat human world chess champions by the year 2000, and out of the 147 predictions he made that year, 115 were “entirely” correct, 12 were “essentially” correct, and just three of his predictions were incorrect.
That’s why.
IFLScience reports…
In terms of immortality, Kurzweil believes that by the year 2030, we will be able to “advance human life expectancy” by “more than a year every year”. Part of this – itself progress towards the singularity 15 years later – will see nanobots flowing through our bloodstream, making repairs and linking our brain up to the cloud. When this happens, we will be able to send videos (or emails if you want to think about the more dull aspects of being a freaking cyborg) directly from our brains, as well as backing up our memories.
“That leads to computers having human intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding who we are. Today, that’s not just a future scenario,” Kurzweil said. “It’s here, in part, and it’s going to accelerate.”
Kurzweil also claims we need not worry about AI taking over the world.
“That’s not realistic,” Kurzweil said way back in 2017. “We don’t have one or two AIs in the world. Today we have billions.”
That’s right. Just because AI is really good at designing alternate NFL uniforms and are better at proving they’re human than humans are when it comes to online tests, it doesn’t mean it will eventually rule the world.
So all those hundreds of top technologists who demanded the halt of advanced AI systems back in March, can just chill.
Good thing too, since everyone involved in artificial intelligence has basically ignored them.