Ray Kurzweil’s assertion is that the progress of society is occurring at an ever faster and faster pace. This means that advances in technology are happening at a logarithmic rate of progression – they happen faster and faster.

Mankind’s early discoveries – using fire for cooking, the wheel, growing crops – took millions of years to evolve. Nowadays, evolution happens much faster.

I can remember thinking about early computers: “Well that’s interesting, but what can you do with it apart from play silly games?”

Then came Windows, and then the Internet – in rapid succession. Modems gave way to broadband: and now fibre optic is present for millions (and around the corner for the rest).

Just ponder the thought that 10 years ago we did not use search engines, – Google was not heard of.

In this video Ray Kurzweil expands on that vision and predicts what the next 10, 20, 30 or 40 years holds for us. It’s going to be an exciting ride.

Ray Kurzweil – Futurist

[Recorded July 13 2009] Ray Kurzweil is a 21st century scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author, visionary and futurist. As a scientist and inventor he has pioneered work in optical character recognition (OCR), speech recognition and invented the first electric piano.

Related articles about Ray Kurzweil

• Sean McBride: Futurist Ray Kurzweil isn’t worried about climate change (kurzweilai.net)
• The Immortal Ambitions of Ray Kurzweil: A Review of ‘Transcendent Man’ (scientificamerican.com)
• Transcendent Man, a Documentary About Futurist Ray Kurzweil (laughingsquid.com)
• Ray Kurzweil in Time Magazine (speculist.com)

Ray Kurzweil Predicts The Future is a post from: Living To 150

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Ray Kurzweil says that scientific advances are happening faster and faster. He points out that whereas evolutionary changes used to be very slow, it is in their nature to accelerate. Ten years ago hardly anyone used search engines! Ten months ago hardly anyone used Twitter!

These accelerating changes will make for more dramatic changes in the next few decades than most of us can imagine. With Kurzweil’s help, we can get a flavour of what these changes will mean for us.

As always, this interview with Ray Kurzweil is fascinating.

Leave a comment with what you think!

Ray Kurzweil – Why The Future Is Coming Much Faster is a post from: Living To 150

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Genius Ray Kurzweil has long predicted the time when a computer will be able to think at the same rate as a human.

He predicts that this time – which he calls the Singularity – will occur around 2045. It will have tremendous repercussions for humanity. Kurzweil explores the Singularity on this video.

Do let me know what you think – leave a comment.

Ray Kurweil – The Singularity: When Computer=Brain is a post from: Living To 150

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A documentary is out of Ray Kurzweil, genius inventor and futurist. Kurzweil invented the scanner, the first electronic piano and dictation software, among many other things. Many of his predictions of the future have been proven correct.

He now predicts that machine intelligence will equal human intelligence around 2045. This has been called the singularity. To keep understanding the advances in technology, he further predicts that humans will choose to enhance their own minds using machine intelligence.

He is a fascinating speaker, though some will find his ideas challenging. Here is the trailer for the film.

Ray Kurweil: Transcendent Man – A Documentary is a post from: Living To 150

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Gosh – I’d like to go to this – the Manhattan Beach Project, Los Angeles. It’s the conference I wanted to go to when I went to Convergence08 last November: because this on is focused specifically on longevity.

The field of longevity research is getting very exciting now. Aubrey de Grey is quoted as thinking there is a 50/50 chance of his living forever.  Now, if a conservative scientist says that, you have to take note.

Unfortunately, I cannot go – I have things booked for November and can’t get away. But it’s in the diary for next year.

Apparently there will be recordings of the speakers which can be watched for free.

“You’ll get to see all of the twenty minute presentations by world-leading researchers. Each one of the fifteen presenters will also answer up to ten minutes of questions.”

Sorry to miss it. The usual suspects – Aubrey de Grey and Ray Kurzweil – will be there (albeit Kurweil will be beamed in). The whole thing is hosted by David A Kekich and Greta Blackburn of Maximum Life Foundation, and sponsored by Life Extension Foundation. Should be very good.

Follow Maximum Life Foundation on Twitter @maxlifeorg .

Longevity Conference, November 2009 is a post from: Living To 150

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Google and Nasa are backing Ray Kurzweil in a new school for ‘futurists’. The school will be located around the corner from Google in Silicon Valley.

The school will pull together people and ideas from rapidly growing and advancing disciplines which are going to affect our future – including health and longevity – tremendously. These include technology, medicine, artificial intelligence (AI), genetics and  nanotechnology.

The students will get together each year for nine weeks to soak up cutting edge ideas across discipline The idea of the University is not to set exams and issue degrees, but to share ideas in these rapidly developing fields. 

Ray Kurzweil put forward his view that the day when the intelligence of machines equal the intelligence human is coming nearer at a faster pace. This is because of the accelerating progress in biology, technology and AI. This time has been called the ‘Singularity’.

Kurzweil predicts this time will be before the middle of this century. More intelligent machines will, he says, be able to solve problems of poverty, starvation, pollution and global warming.

Kurzweil has a strong back-catalogue of successful and ground-breaking inventions including the electric piano, the document scanner and dictation software. He is the visionary who has been appointed as Chancellor.

The new school will be called the ‘Singularity University’.

Guardian article

Smart Machines on the Horizon is a post from: Living To 150

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Every year sees an increase in life expectancy, and this rate of increase is accelerating.

For example, in the UK. Between 1981-91. Life expectancy for a 65-year-old man increased by 1.6 months. During the following decade it increased by 1.8 months. Between 1995 and 2005 the increase was 2.3 months.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=168

Will You Be Alive In 2100?

If this longevity trend continues, and most forward-thinking statisticians think it will, we will get to the point where the passing of a year brings about an increase in life expectancy of more than a year.

Raymond Kurzweil, a brilliant thinker and inventor (who some have compared to Thomas Edison for combining invention with practicality), thinks this date will arrive in only 15 years hastening in a long life for many.

http://www.kurzweilai.net

So, this means that if you can manage to live until around 2022, an unlimited lifespan is potentially possible.

Unlimited ‘Healthy Middle Age’

An unlimited lifespan may sound fantastic; but so would many other medical and technical advances have sounded to people in, say, 1960. A healthy long life is very close. It is inevitable; it’s just a matter of when.

In 1960, the Internet; heart bypass surgery; microwaves; mobile phones – would all have seemed fantastic; even unbelievable. Now, as then, we need to think ‘outside the box’ because these changes which will usher in longer and longer life are very close; I mean that we will see human living much longer in, probably, around 25-30 years.

The Future – Computers + Technology

The great changes in life expectancy we see in the 21st century are those enabled by a rapid increase in computing power combined with huge advances in biology. For example, who would have thought 20 or even 10 years ago that in the first decade of the 21st century, thousands of surgical operations would be carried out by robots controlled by humans?

The changes which science will soon bring to human longevity will result not in an extended period of old age. They will give us an increasing amount of healthy middle age.

Longer human life is about to happen: perhaps we should wish for the wisdom to use it well.

Unlimited Life Expectancy – Pushing Long Life to the Limit is a post from: Living To 150

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November 15-16th, 2008

This conference looks just brilliant. Relaxed, informal, networking with other enthusiasts and it should be fascinating.

Half the programme is generated by individuals setting up their own meetings and discussions; and the rest can choose to attend those they are interested in. There are meals for more networking on the Friday and the Saturday nights.

The Attendees

Enthusiasts will be there as well as experts in the field of longevity and ‘the future’.

Check out Aubrey de Grey; Dont let the looks fool you. One bright cookie.

Keynote speakers include: Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google; Aubrey de Grey; and Terry Grossman (co-author with Ray Kurzweil of the great book Fantastic Voyage).

The event is being held at the Computer History Museum – which sounds just great – in Mountain View in the middle of Silicon Valley.

The cost is just $145 (book soon) and rooms at the recommended hotel are is $95 per night.

Looks exciting to me. If you are going – comment on this post and perhaps we can meet up.

“Convergence08″ Conference is a post from: Living To 150

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Livingto150.com is a blog of Malcolm Simmonds, acupuncturist, herbalist, naturopath, based near Brighton, on the southern coast of the UK.

“I became fascinated by longevity, or “life extension”, after reading Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. Having been interested in alternative healthcare for many years, I decide to study this topic further.

This resulted, eventually, in my visiting Dr Terry Grossman co-author of the book mentioned above, in his anti-aging clinic in Denver, Colorado, for a 2-day consultation/checkup. One of the test I took reckoned that I should be 39 years old, from the measurements it took, rather than my 57 years in actuality. That was very pleasing; and I thank my parents for my genes

I return to the USA every couple of years or so for 80 or so blood tests to keep track of essential features of my health. It is massively cheaper than doing the same in the UK. My last visit was in April 2011.

I spend much of my time now working on my herbal supplement company, Specialist Herbal Supplies, a supplier of high quality herbal supplements; as well as a good deal of time on producing various websites and blogs.

About is a post from: Living To 150

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