Imagining 2076: connect your brain to the Internet
December 13, 2011
Looking at 2020 and beyond, in the interactive, crowd-sourced timeline “Predicting The Future of Computing” in last week’s special issue of Science Times, readers imagined a future with cures for intractable diseases, direct links between brain and computer, automated everything, contact with alien life forms, sentient machines, and no language barriers.
[ New York Times ]
Comments (8)
by IQ146
What a non story. Bunch of people ‘imagine’ the future. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yes, in the sixties ‘the future’ was going to include ‘nuclear cars’ and ‘nuclear personal aircraft’ just imagine one of those crashing to Earth! And electricity so cheap by 2000 that it would be free to everyone, yeah right. Truth is, none of these people have been paying attention to what’s happening here and now; climate change will make the survival of more than a handful of humans highly unlikely since most arable land [food] is liable to flooding. Despite the tecno dreams, life is going to get increasingly short and brutish. Sorry to inject some realism into this fantasy site.
by Giulio Prisco
@Jotto – as you say, we are not going to cure cancer by 2012. There are very important research advances in labs and clinical trials, and we see examples on KurzweilAI News every week, but cancer still kills. What is more, those who get cancer often think that there is nothing to do, which makes things worse.
When I was a kid (almost 50 years ago!) I asked my family if cancer could be cured. They answered, not yet, but scientists have discovered many things that show that cancer may be cured soon. Like now…
by Cru
” Will we speak telepathically? Maybe by 2484, readers said.”
This made me guffaw. 2484? Seriously? A lot of people are going to have their minds blown by the end of the decade.
by Cru
Just a few years after Cowboy Bebop. More than a decade after Real Drive, and almost half a century after Ghost in the Shell.
by EvilMDK
I don’t see Strong AI showing up later than the 2040′s, and that’s REALLY pessimistic.
by Singme
So this article allowed any user to vote the year up or down. Most probably know little about the value of accelerating returns. For the most part you can neglect this story, except to get a pulse of the average persons belief.
by Henrik Yde
2076…? What happened to Singularity 2040s…?
by Jotto
Sadly, it appears to have run amok. It seems unlikely that we’re going to cure cancer in 2012, yet that is where it has ended up from the votes. By a stretch perhaps preliminary, laboratory, non-clinical treatments with good results could become more prevalent in 2012 (I believe that to be the case), but certain not cured, not by a long shot.