Immortality Only 7 Years Away?
Is the desire for eternal life genuine?
Ray Kurzweil, a futurist, anticipates that human immortality will be a reality within just seven years.
The 75-year-old computer scientist, ex-Google engineer, and recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1999, as well as a 2002 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, has made this bold prediction, among many others, over recent decades.
As the anticipated date draws closer, tech vlogger Adagio has highlighted Kurzweil's immortality remarks in a two-part YouTube series. Kurzweil has a track record of accurately predicting technological advancements, such as the ubiquity of laptops and IBM's chess computer defeating world champion Garry Kasparov, which has earned him a dedicated following among futurists.
Adagio's videos, amassing over 87,000 views in total, revisit Kurzweil's assertions from his 2005 book "The Singularity Is Near," where he anticipated that humans would attain eternal life through technology by 2030.
"In 2029, I foresee AI passing a valid Turing test," Kurzweil told Futurism in 2017, alluding to tests that challenge computers to think like humans and thus achieve human-level intelligence. "By 2045, I expect the 'Singularity,' the point at which our effective intelligence will increase a billionfold through merging with the artificial intelligence we've developed."
Kurzweil has previously proposed that within a decade, humans will develop technology using microscopic robots to counteract aging and disease at a cellular level. Indeed, medical engineers are currently developing such disease-combating nanobots. He also asserts that this nanotechnology will enable individuals to consume whatever they desire while remaining slim and energetic.
Kurzweil wrote in a 2003 blog post, "Nanobots in the digestive tract and bloodstream will intelligently extract the exact nutrients we require, request additional nutrients and supplements via our personal wireless local area network, and expel the remaining food."
Although some may find Kurzweil's forecasts far-fetched, many of his previous predictions have proven accurate. He claimed in 2010 that he had an 86% accuracy rate with 147 predictions made in the 1990s. His successful predictions include custom clothing design from home computers by 1999, the world's top chess player losing to a computer by 2000, widespread use of portable computers in various sizes and shapes by 2009, and ubiquitous high-bandwidth wireless internet access by 2010.
Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos have invested heavily in Kurzweil's predictions, focusing their careers on creating technology that allows humans to live well past the age of 100.
