Health Law

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: When Humans Transcend Biology. by Ray Kurzweil, Viking Press, 2005.

By Greg Piche'

    Recent developments in brain scanning through technological refinements of SPECT, fMRI and PET scans that monitor water, blood and/or glucose movement in the human brain to observe actual brain functioning as opposed to structure are providing a wealth of new information concerning its organization, complexity and integration.  Ray Kurzweil believes that exponential improvements in the temporal, spatial resolution and bandwidth of the human brain which is doubling each year, will successfully enable us to reverse engineer the human brains principals of operation  in the first half of this century.  This will result in that he calls the ?Singularity? where machine based intelligence surpasses that of all humans combined, creating a disruptive transformation in human capability.  This capability he believes will be a billion times more powerful that all of human intelligence today.

Within several decades information based technologies will encompass all human knowledge and proficiency, ultimately including the pattern recognition powers, problem solving skills, and emotional and moral intelligence of the brain itself.

    Mr. Kurzwell speaks with some considerable authority.  He is Boston engineer who has contributed significant inventions based upon new technology including OCR, Voice Recognition Software, and a digital book called BLIO. He has written extensively about the impact of technological growth and its potential impact on life extension in the future. He provides a fascinating look into the potential results of exponential technological growth as it relates to health care of the future. He sees the 21st Century as the GNR century (genetics, nanotechnolgy, robotics). He describes in detail genetic based treatment and intervention modalities that will radically alter the arc of human life spans.  

    Among the nanomedical outcomes he foresees are the use of nanobots in the blood stream to allow for programable blood and event the potential elimination of the need for the heart because of the ability of the blood supply to follow its own course with out the need for an analog tool like the heart which is subject to all of the frailties of which we are currently aware. He predicts that nanotubes- molecules organized in three dimensions- will be the primary storage unit for memory bits and will act as logic gates for digital technology.

    While provocative and stimulating, this book is not for the faint of heart. It is close to 500 pages long and the technical parts can require the reader?s bushwacking through  dense technological undergrowth, but the hike is well worth it.  He follows in the path of Aubrey de Gray.

Full post as published by Healthcare Law Blog on August 20, 2010 (boomark / email).