Re: I'm curious what people on the thread think of this:
In someone's column (I don't recall who's), about 2 years ago, the notion that the last human death would occur in 20 to 30 years was presented. After that, backups of our minds would be available, or we would just be downloaded to computers. One of the ideas presented in article you pointed out.
The notion presented in this other column was that our downloaded electronic minds would operate a million times faster than organic brains, and that we'd be able to live forever - it had me a bit overwhelmed for a little while, and I had it on my wall at work.
Kurtzweil's proposal of an inflection point brought Clarke's Childhood's End to mind, too. Though Clarke's "infection point" was from a very different source.
I have some friends who have those "ear buds" for their cell phones that are both speaker and microphone and fit in the ear. (I'm not a big cell user, personally).
IMHO, any difference between those phones and mental telepathy is pretty much limited to the fine print, and most people don't get too excited about the whole thing. I find it fascinating.
Interesting read. As kurtzweil's forecasts come true one by one over the next few decades, we will probably barely notice them.
Regards,
Dan |
