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A Look Back At Kurzweil's Predictions For 2009

Posted by kdawson on from the no-one-expects-the-mule dept.

marciot writes "It's interesting to look back at Ray Kurzweil's predictions for 2009 from a decade ago. He was dead on in predicting the ubiquity of portable computers, wireless, the emergence of digital objects, and the rise of privacy concerns. He was a little optimistic in certain areas, predicting the demise of rotating storage and the ubiquity of digital paper a bit earlier than it appears it will actually happen. On the topic of human-computer speech interfaces, though, he seems to be way off." And of course Kurzweil missed 9/11 and the fallout from that. His predictions might have been nearer the mark absent the war on terror.

4 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. What a year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Israeli forces are about to pound the fuck out of the Islamic savages. Meanwhile, John Travolta's son dies a tragic scientology-related death.

    2009 is here, and it's name is karmic retribution! We shouldn't take out too many of those Islamic zealots because if we did, who would be left to suicide-bomb the hollywood church of scientology? Hmm, travolta...dead son...flies jets...*grin*...hmm, never mind. The situation will remedy itself!

  2. My penis is hard! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Attention all hot women: please form a line.

    1. Re:My penis is hard! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I'm really hot and hard...er, wet, yeah, that's it. Where does the line start?

  3. Re:So, basically by jacoby · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Programming? Yeah right. Probably last thing ever to go voice-activated.

    Programmers won't even go for proportionally-spaced fonts.