How far can longevity go? 100 is already a done deal. 120 is very rare but increasingly believable. How about 150? How about…no limit?
A leading scientist, inventor, author and futurist predicts that the combination of new developments in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics will enable us to reverse the effects of aging altogether.
How soon? By 2030.
The man making this breathtaking prediction has serious credentials. has written books on health, artificial intelligence and transhumanism (which envisions a fusion of biology and technology to embed AI-powered devices in the human body).
He’s an expert on the possibilities of nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology as agents of life extension. In 1999 he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Bill Clinton; inducted into the US Patent Office’s National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002, and received over 21 honorary doctorates.
He also has a great track record of making predictions that seemed wild but turned out to be accurate. in 1990, when it was thought to be an impossibility, he predicted a computer beat a grandmaster at chess — within 10 years. It happened when Big Blue defeated Gary Kasparov in 1997.
The nanobot idea would account for longevity — even radical, almost unthinkable longevity — but immortality?
Here is where we go into a whole other dimension — a fusion of computer and brain — or a mini-computer implanted in the brain — that would enable knowledge, memory, ideas and all the other markers of individual identity to be digitized and capable of living forever, and even being added to, in digital space.
Too farfetched? You can learn more about Kurzweil’s ideas here, here and here.
Could it actually happen?
What do you think?
Interesting article! Sadly, I rarely can find information to support seniors with modest financial availability to remain safely in their chosen home. This is why I researched and published a resource book with nearly two hundred ideas and tips most at no or minimal cost.
Personalized gene therapy/technology seems more likely than nanobots, but the result would be the same.