By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain...
...or at
least that's what Ray Kurzweil thinks. He has spent his life inventing machines
that help people, from the blind to dyslexics. Now, he believes we're on the
brink of a new age – the 'singularity' – when mind-boggling technology will
allow us to [...]
run as fast as Usain Bolt (for 15 minutes) – and even live forever. Is there
sense to his science – [...]?
Should, by some terrible misfortune, Ray Kurzweil
shuffle off his mortal coil tomorrow, the obituaries would record an inventor
of rare and visionary talent. [...]However, these past accomplishments, as
impressive as they are, would tell only half the Kurzweil story. The rest of
his biography – the essence of his very existence, he would contend – belongs
to the future.
Following the publication of his 2005 book, The
Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil has become known,
above all, as a technology speculator whose predictions have polarised opinion
[...]. It's not just that he boldly envisions a tomorrow's world where, for
example, tiny robots will reverse the effects of pollution, artificial
intelligence will far outstrip (and supplement) biological human intelligence,
and humankind "will be able to live indefinitely without ageing".
[...] They will all, he steadfastly maintains, happen before the middle of the
21st century. [...] Ray Kurzweil,
61, sincerely believes that his own immortality is a realistic proposition... and
just as strongly contends that [...] he will be able to reclaim his father,
Fredric Kurzweil (the victim of a fatal heart attack in 1970), from death.
Just when will this ultimate life-affirming
feat be possible? In Kurzweil's estimation, we will be able to upload the human
brain to a computer, capturing "a person's entire personality, memory,
skills and history", by the end of the 2030s; humans and non-biological
machines will then merge so effectively that the differences between them will
no longer matter; and, after that, human intelligence, transformed for the
better, will start to expand outward into the universe, around about 2045.
[...] Microsoft chairman Bill Gates calls him "the best person I know at
predicting the future of artificial intelligence". [...]
The singularity, writes Kurzweil, is "a
future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid,
its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed".
[...]For Kurzweil, the crux of the singularity is that the pace of technology
is increasing at a super-fast, exponential rate. What's more, there's also
"exponential growth in the rate ' of exponential growth". It is this
understanding that gives him the confidence to believe that technology – through
an explosion of progress in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics – will soon
surpass the limits of his imagination.
It is also why, in addition to bananas and the
odd beneficial glass of red wine, he follows a regime of around 200 vitamin
pills daily: not so much a diet as an attempt to "aggressively
re-programme" his biochemistry. He claims that tests have shown he aged
only two biological years over the course of 16 actual vitamin-popping years.
[...] If he slows down the ageing process, he reckons, he'll be around long
enough to witness the arrival of technology that will prolong his life...
forever. [...] Not everyone, though, concurs with his appraisal of
technological progress, and his belief in the imminence of immortality.
[...] "The form of opposition from
fundamentalist humanists, and fundamentalist naturalists – that we should make
no change to nature [or] to human beings – is directly contrary to the nature
of human beings, because we are the species that goes beyond our
limitations," [argues] Kurzweil. “[...] Nature, and the natural human
condition, generates tremendous suffering. We have the means to overcome
that[...]”
Thanks largely to Kurzweil and the singularity,
scenarios once viewed as diverting entertainment are being reappraised with a
new seriousness. [...]"People can wax philosophically," says
Kurzweil. "It's very abstract – whether it's a good thing to overcome
death or not – but when it comes to some new methodology that's a better
treatment for cancer, there's no controversy. Nobody's picketing doctors who
put computers inside people's brains for Parkinson's: it's not considered
controversial."
By
2040 you will be able to upload your brain... VOC
The blind: les aveugles
To be on the brink of: être sur le point de
Mind-boggling: extraordinaire
‘to shuffle off his mortal coil”: to die (Shakespeare reference –
Hamlet)
To contend that: affirmer que/prétendre que/soutenir que
To polarize=to cause to be opposed
Boldly: avec audace
To outstrip: surpasser/dépasser
Steadfastly: fermement
A feat: un exploit/une prouesse
To merge: fusionner
The crux: le noeud/le coeur/l’essentiel
The pace: la cadence/vitesse
To claim: affirmer
To concur: être d’accord
The species: l’espèce
To reappraise: reconsidérer/réexaminer
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