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Google's Ray Kurzweil Wants To Live Forever, and He Thinks It Includes Nanobots (playboy.com)
Reader Esther Schindler writes: Whatever else he is (author, computer scientist, inventor, futurist, Google employee), Ray Kurzweil is undeniably fascinating, with intriguing predictions about the future -- some of which might be accurate. In an interview, he discusses life extension and technology, as well as how he thinks they'll be connected. "When people talk about the future of technology, especially artificial intelligence, they very often have the common dystopian Hollywood-movie model of us versus the machines. My view is that we will use these tools as we've used all other tools -- to broaden our reach. And in this case, we'll be extending the most important attribute we have, which is our intelligence." Part of what I like is that he sees ways to use technology for good and not for evil. "By the 2030s we will have nanobots that can go into a brain non-invasively through the capillaries, connect to our neocortex and basically connect it to a synthetic neocortex that works the same way in the cloud. So we'll have an additional neocortex, just like we developed an additional neocortex 2 million years ago, and we'll use it just as we used the frontal cortex: to add additional levels of abstraction. We'll create more profound forms of communication than we're familiar with today, more profound music and funnier jokes. We'll be funnier. We'll be sexier. We'll be more adept at expressing loving sentiments."Kurzweil also thinks his diet can help him live forever. Kurzweil claims that he spends "a few thousand dollars per day" (or roughly a million dollar a year) on diet pills and eating right. According to a Financial Times report from last year, Kurzweil's breakfast includes:Berries (85 calories for a cup), Dark chocolate infused with espresso (170 calories for an ounce), Smoked salmon and mackerel (100 calories for a 3-ounce serving), Vanilla soy milk (100 calories for a cup)
Stevia (zero calories), Porridge (150 to 350 calories for half a cup, depending on ingredients and cooking method), and Green tea (zero calories). Kurzweil takes 100 pills a day (down from 250 a few years ago, technology has advanced, you see) for "heart health" to "eye health, sexual health, and brain health."
>> Kurzweil claims that he spends "a few thousand dollars per day" (or roughly a million dollar a year) on diet pills and eating right. Kurzweil takes 100 pills a day (down from 250 a few years ago...
Typical American "Money is the answer to everything" mindset. The obvious proof that it doesn't work is that he still actually looks his age.
It seems to me that the best thing you can do for yourself is eat simply and regularly exercise, avoid drugs, live a happy stress-free life (which includes not worrying about things you can't change, such as aging/death and the insane belief that there's a pill for everything).
What good is living forever if you can't enjoy a bacon cheeseburger from time to time?
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
You must be that "space nutter" guy. Unlike immortality, space is actually real and a place we've been before. Try again, luddite.
Kurzweil claims that he spends "a few thousand dollars per day" (or roughly a million dollar a year) on diet pills and eating right. According to a Financial Times report from last year, Kurzweil's breakfast includes: Berries (85 calories for a cup)
If my diet consisted largely of diet pills and "berries"--just "berries", no particular kind--I'm pretty sure I would be making wild predictions about the future too. That doesn't mean you should listen to them.
Personally, I think he's just over-enthusiastic and drinking his own Kool-Aid. I believe he's sincere, but lacks a certain sense of realism about where things are going and the actual challenges inherent in it.
I think we need people like that to sort of keep things moving forward, as it is far too easy to simply accept the world the way it is. Just as long as we collectively maintain a balanced perspective about what we are actually doing in regard to reality.