- What will it be like to be human in 100 years?
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The futurist Ray Kurzweil made an amazing prediction
a few years ago.
He said that advances in computer processing,
artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic engineering
would all lead to a transformative moment
in our history as a species.
It would happen around the year 2045
and things would start changing so quickly,
that it would be impossible to define the present.
Moreover, we humans would use these technologies
to transform ourselves to become trans-human,
maybe becoming cyborgs, maybe genetically engineered beings.
The important thing is, we would evolve millions
of times faster than the process of natural selection
would allow.
Now I was thinking, 2045?
(scoffs) I wanna know what it's gonna be like to be human
a century from now.
What would it be like in 2116?
And first of all I have to say, I don't fully agree
with Kurzweil's timeline.
Now don't get me wrong, he is a smart man,
smarter than I am, I'm sure, but the fact is,
a lot of these different fields of study don't progress
at the same rate.
So maybe some areas will go way ahead
and others will linger way behind.
For example, the Human Genome Project,
it finished ahead of schedule.
We were able to map out all the base pairs of DNA
in the human genome but we don't fully understand
what they all do or how they all interact with one another
and it may take quite some time before we get there.
Similarly, the human brain is still kind of a mystery.
We know how neurons interact and we know in general
what different sections of the brain are supposed to do,
but beyond that, it's still largely unknown to us.
It may take decades before we get much further
in our understanding.
Heck, even with robotics we have made amazing advances
in machine learning, but our robots still have trouble
opening up a door and walking through
without falling over first.
Now I think that by 2045 standards,
the people of today will seem a little primitive,
maybe a bit quaint but I don't know that we'll quite
reach the realm of trans-human.
But 2116, that's a different story.
By that time it'll be unheard of for a person
not to have access to whatever is the equivalent
of the internet and you might not even need a device
to be able to tap into it.
You could communicate with anyone in the world
at any time or tap into the massive amounts of knowledge
that are online and the idealists say this will lead
to an unprecedented era of peace.
Personally I think it's gonna take more than that
to actually achieve peace but I hold out hope
that it is in fact possible.
Advances in robotics and genetics will mean
that illness, injury, genetic disorders will become
a thing of the past.
They'll either be curable, preventable or treatable
in such a way they make no impact
on the people who have them.
I think the journey to this destination might be a little
slow, not just because of a gap in scientific knowledge
or technological barriers that might be in place
but because there are also some social norms
that we're going to have to work our way around
as we reach this future.
Speaking of which, will we become super robo humans by 2116?
I'm not sure, I know that robotics are going
to play an important role and they're gonna allow us
to enhance our senses well beyond what we can do today.
But I don't know if we're going to reach a point
where people will give up their fleshy, biological limbs
for robotic ones.
There might be people who are willing to do it,
but I think social norms are going to prevent that
from happening even a century from now.
One thing that I think is a certainty is our average
lifespans will be increased dramatically by 2116
and perhaps more importantly, we'll live healthier, longer.
Meaning throughout our lifespan, we will be healthier
for a greater percentage of our lifetimes.
That, I think is a future worth striving for.
And I've got a question for all of you guys out there.
Do you think I'm way off base?
Do you think I'm being too conservative?
Do you think I'm being too ambitious?
I wanna hear what you think human beings will be like
in 100 years, let me know in the comments below.
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(inspirational music)