In the chaotic year 2024, there are many signs that people are reaching a crossroads. At this point, anything could happen, and most folks probably wouldn’t be surprised or even phased. However, according to one futurist, Ray Kurzweil, we have barely begun seeing profound changes on the horizon.
Kurzweil, a generally optimistic Google engineer, AI expert, prophet, and futurist, suggests humans could reach a sort of immortality very soon: 2030. Or at least live to age 500 or so. How? One possibility is that AI will design nanobots that can repair the body, augment, and reverse the aging process. But that’s just the beginning.
Is he smoking something? Well, his many predictions going back 20 years have proven mostly correct. With his six decades in AI (who knew it went back that far?) make him a top world expert on the subject.
Immortal People in a World Already On the Edge?
Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, Kurzweil gave a conservative estimate that AI would pass for a human being (the Turing Test) and match any human’s intelligence by 2029. If you’ve interacted with AI at all, you know it’s clearly got some serious work to do. But the prophet says it might even come ahead of schedule and that all human intelligence might soon fit on a 1 Liter computer, a humbling thought.
If it does get there, he says achieving “immortal” status might involve merging with AI! But wasn’t it yesterday that experts were waving red flags about the prospects of artificial intelligence? You know, like causing human extinction?
Kurzweil Suggests It Won’t Just Help the Elites
If people do start living to 500 or more, where do the resources come from on a planet facing the early beginnings of major climate change? Wouldn’t the added stresses of billions of immortal people push things over the edge? As a result, would there be added pressure for people to become digital-only facsimiles of themselves?
In a world of wealth inequality, it’s logical to suspect that new technologies will only be available to the elites as Sci-Fi has predicted. But Kurzweil believes it will be widely available to just about anyone. One day, it could be as widespread as people carrying smartphones. Overall, he expects it will improve economic disparities and quality of life.
“It’s not something you have to be fabulously wealth to afford,” he said.
And the coming technologies could rapidly give anyone new talents and power. So, how will universities be affected if people can simply download new skillsets to start using them? How much will it cost to download your education to your brain? And who gatekeeps the downloads?
Kurzweil On the Rapidly-Approaching Singularity
In his new book, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, he also pinpoints another date: 2045.
Rapid advances in areas like nanobots, or preferably, brain-machine interfaces that aren’t intrusive into the brain, may usher in either an optimistic or ominous milestone: the Singularity. It’s when AI overtakes all combined human intelligence and causes an “intelligence explosion.”
The term is borrowed from physics because what happens is as mysterious and unknown as a black hole.
“This is not an alien invasion. AI is evolving from within us and will reflect our humanity. By 2045, we will connect our brains directly to the cloud, enhancing our intelligence a millionfold and expanding our consciousness in ways we can barely imagine. This is the Singularity,” states South By Southwest.
Immortality is Relative
Until we reach the Singularity, so-called “immortal” people are still subject to the normal perils of mortality. But afterward, he suggests there will be a complete backup copy of your brain to replace “you” if you should walk into a bomb and explode. That is unless something also blows up the computer holding your digital brain contents. Then, you’ll need a backup of the backup!
“We never actually get to a point where we absolutely guarantee that you live forever,” he conceded.
Interview with Ray Kurzweil by South by Southwest (SXSW):
Did Kurzweil Forget About Consciousness?
If you’re a spiritual person, then you are taking this all with a grain of nano-salt. After all, what about a being’s soul and consciousness? If you believe, then it’s not all math. A copy of your brain is not you because there’s a higher consciousness that is definitely not contained there.
While Kurzweil argues that there’s no definitive test for consciousness, he paradoxically proposes that advanced brain-computer interfaces could enable us to upload a form of consciousness into a digital form.
When asked if anything is happening in the brain that can’t be captured by computation and math, he simply replied, “No, I mean, what would that be?” On the other hand, he recognizes that consciousness is an intangible mystery beyond the reach of science.
“Consciousness is very important, but it’s actually not scientific,” he said in the SXSW interview. “These are deeply mysterious things,” he added.
Going further, he says there may never be a way to verify it.
“There’s no way to tell whether something’s conscious,” he said.
Therefore, any copy of your brain’s contents will not also copy your consciousness. The so-called ghost or spirit in the machine is not captured but remains free. Believers consider this to be the true immortality when we leave behind our bodies to rejoin the source. Rather than extend the games here on Earth, we’re here to learn from it so that we can eventually go beyond into a higher realm. Of course, that’s all beyond the scope and reach of material science as well.
AI with Consciousness, Emotions, and Spirituality?
Anticipating the lack of concrete evidence for consciousness, Kurzweil envisions a future where non-biological intelligences will assert they have it. Indeed, they will also claim to have emotions and spirituality, as has already taken place. Remember the robot priests of Japan from 2019?
The AI prophet predicts a society where such claims are widely accepted, blurring the distinction between artificial and human intelligence.
Video by The Hindu:
An AI Journey That Removes Biological Limitations
In a previous book from 1999, Kurzweil wrote about The Age of Spiritual Machines. In his view, reaching the Singularity would mean humans will be given a chance to move beyond our biological limitations. But the path would take us toward what he considers a spiritual evolution. Does that mean our consciousness, too? As noted, he doesn’t go there because it’s not scientific.
Rather than thinking of ourselves as a collection of biological cells, we should think of ourselves as an evolving pattern. It sounds much like new studies pointing to a fractal brain architecture.
Although Kurzweil suspects we are alone in the universe, he suggests our accelerated intelligence will begin to expand (perhaps like a fractal?) into the surrounding universe.
Will Humans Choose a Spiritual Machine Path?
As humans evolve exponentially more, he believes we’ll go on a kind of “spiritual path” as we move toward loftier goals like higher intelligence, knowledge, elegance, creativity, beauty, and love. Thus, we would evolve toward attaining a “conception of god” as we leave behind our biological constraints. Can AI help us to focus more on bettering ourselves?
Meanwhile, he can’t rule out that we may already share a consciousness since it can’t be proven scientifically. If so, do we need technology to facilitate our higher evolution? Or will it ultimately prove redundant because we already have the potential to unlock the ultimate upgrade within?
Video by ADAGIO about Kurzweil’s predictions:
