I was searching for some course ware for Learning Point. The first natural place to visit was MIT OCW (Open Course Ware). Looking through some courses, I found this presentation on Emerging Technologies. It contains a few slides on Predictions of the future by Ray Kurzweil.
It is interesting to read predictions since they act as catalysts for thinking (just like Science Fiction).
- What are the chances some of these predictions may come true?
- What happens even if a few of them come true – how can we handle them?
- Is our ability to absorb radically new ways of living using these technologies increasing?
- Are we simply getting used to this pace of innovation in technology? What about the people who do not?
- Is there a new divide so called Information Rich and Information Poor developing rapidly?
- Is the next problem (after global poverty), information poverty?
- How do you know what you don’t know?
These predictions excite me but also scare me a bit.
2 thoughts on “Emerging Technologies Lecture”
Great resources and interesting topic. Thank you for pointing them out. It’s kind of sad but the predictions don’t seem as far out of this world as they used to.
I heard an interview with Ray on NPR and went and bought his book “The Singularity is Near”. Have not read it though. One thing he said in the interview was that if you live for another 15 years, there are enough developments that will let you live as long as you want. I thought that was pretty far out. That was more than a year ago. I forgot about it all.
Then I found these slides in an unlikely place – this last lecture in this MIT course. And I thought some of them (augmenting humans with computers and software) may take longer. Not because of lack of technology but more because of resistance to adoption.
You may be right though. If developments accelerate at the current rate who knows what will happen in the next 50-100 years.
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