Yes big changes around the world particularly in regard to the climate and our polluted environment. So much going on behind the scenes in our understanding of quantum physics and nano-technology. I often feel we are on the edge of Fermi’s Paradox. The argument that technological civilizations usually or invariably destroy themselves shortly after developing radio or spaceflight technology. Our problem is that since the 1940’s we have developed the capability to destroy ourselves through targeted bio warfare, nuclear holocaust, climate change and the use of nano-technology. We aren’t very good at collaborating around species survival. We only do this in separate groups and in a tribal fashion around religious and other idealogies.
Until we understand that every child born is an integral part of the human species and that those children rely on a clean planet to survive, we will continually teeter on the edge of human biological extinction.
Of course if Ray Kurtzweil and his cronies beat climate change and human biology to the punch, we won’t need the planet anymore, we can live our lives in a virtual world, that is unless we aren’t already doing that.
“Kurtzweil states that with radical life extension will come radical life enhancement. He says he is confident that within 10 years we will have the option to spend some of our time in 3D virtual environments that appear just as real as real reality, but these will not yet be made possible via direct interaction with our nervous system. “If you look at video games and how we went from pong to the virtual reality we have available today, it is highly likely that immortality in essence will be possible.” He believes that 20 to 25 years from now, we will have millions of blood-cell sized devices, known as nanobots, inside our bodies fighting against diseases, improving our memory, and cognitive abilities. Kurzweil says that a machine will pass the Turing test by 2029, and that around 2045, “the pace of change will be so astonishingly quick that we won’t be able to keep up, unless we enhance our own intelligence by merging with the intelligent machines we are creating”. Kurzweil states that humans will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological intelligence that becomes increasingly dominated by its non-biological component. He stresses that “AI is not an intelligent invasion from Mars. These are brain extenders that we have created to expand our own mental reach. They are part of our civilization. They are part of who we are. So over the next few decades our human-machine civilization will become increasingly dominated by its non-biological component. In Transcendent Man Kurzweil states “We humans are going to start linking with each other and become a metaconnection we will all be connected and all be omnipresent, plugged into this global network that is connected to billions of people, and filled with data.” Kurzweil states in a press conference that we are the only species that goes beyond our limitations- “we didn’t stay in the caves, we didn’t stay on the planet, and we’re not going to stay with the limitations of our biology”. In his singularity based documentary he is quoted saying “I think people are fooling themselves when they say they have accepted death”. Wikipedia
If you think I’m making this stuff up note that Kurtzweil is doing his work at the Singularity University in Santa Clara California. It has been launched with backing from NASA and Google and is housed at NASA’s Ames Research Center, close to Google’s headquarters. Say what!
