Welcome To The Future...

No More Surprises...

^ way too many interesting things to list in one post.  

But to look at some seemingly China-relevant prophecies:

2039: Universal translators are widespread

On-person devices capable of instantly translating speech, text or handwriting from any of the world’s 6,000 languages are widespread by this time.* Every website, virtual environment and electronic publication now has this facility too. This is having the effect of speeding up many bureaucratic/administrative procedures in business and government – as well as improving trust and cooperation at both a national and individual level.

It's actually a bit bizarre to call that "China-relevant".  Wouldn't China's isolationist tendencies just sort of end?  The Great Wall of Language would be over.  So long as the translators keep working.  And they'll be here in about 30 years!!!

Crimey.

The future isn't what it used to be. 

i read somewhere that computers will have the same ram and processing speed as human brains by 2020

i'm looking forward to being able to upload everything into my brain instead of reading and studying it

The future isn't what it used to be. 

Been there, nothing special just more of the same caacaa

i read somewhere that computers will have the same ram and processing speed as human brains by 2020

i'm looking forward to being able to upload everything into my brain instead of reading and studying it

Re the first part:

2025

Human brain simulations are possible

The exponential growth in computing power - combined with the use of nanobots - is making it possible to form accurate models of every part of the human brain.

Between 2005 and 2025, there is a millionfold increase in computational power, along with vastly improved scanning resolution and bandwidth. Until recently, only separate regions of the brain had been modelled - but scientists are now able to combine them into one giant, complete simulation.

Much like the Human Genome Project of the 1990s, there were many in the scientific community who doubted the brain could be indexed and catalogued so quickly. However - like their predecessors - they failed to account for the Law of Accelerating Returns and its rapid snowball effect on the gathering of knowledge.*

* The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil (2005)
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254172463&sr=1-1

The more Man knows about the functioning of the brain ... the less he uses it.

BRING BACK COMMON SENSE

Before we develop true artificial intelligence, we need to do more research into artificial stupidity.

Before we develop true artificial intelligence, we need to do more research into artificial stupidity.

Isn't there enough real stupidity that we don't require an extra artificial supply?

We have plenty of analog stupidity, but need some true digital stupidity to create a baseline for developing and measuring digital intelligence.

Organ regeneration is the brass ring as far as I'm concerned.  But we'll face a brand new overcrowding problem once people stop dying.l

Organ regeneration, pshaw!  How about upgrades?

2080

Some humans are becoming more non-biological than biological

Today, the average citizen has access to a wide array of biotechnology implants and personal medical devices. These include fully artificial organs that never fail, bionic eyes and ears providing Superman-like senses, nanoscale brain interfaces which greatly augment the wearer's intelligence, synthetic blood and bodily fluids which can filter deadly toxins and provide hours’ worth of oxygen in a single breath.

Some of the more adventurous citizens are undergoing voluntary amputations to gain prosthetic arms and legs which boost strength and agility by orders of magnitude. There is even a form of artificial skin based on nanotechnology (which can be used to give the appearance of natural skin when applied to metallic limbs).

These various upgrades have become available in a series of gradual, incremental steps over preceding decades - such that today, they are pretty much taken for granted.

They are now being utilised by a wide sector of society, with even those in developing countries having access to at least some of the available upgrades due to exponential trends in price performance.

If a fully upgraded person of the 2080s were to travel back in time a century earlier and be integrated into the population, they would be superior in practically every way imaginable. They could run faster than the greatest athletes of the time; they could leap and bound tremendous distances; they could survive multiple gunshot wounds; they could cope with some of the most hostile environments on Earth without too much trouble. Intellectually, they would put the likes of Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare to shame – thanks to the hyperfast AI merged directly with their brain.


2080 is (given some averaging) apparently where the population may peak.  There'll be something like 9 billion people on the planet.  But it would seem exceedingly unlikely too that all of them or even any significant fraction of them would have the money for the best of kinds of upgrades.  The superhumans are coming, as long as they have rich daddies.

LOL!

On a China salary given all the life extension that's going on, if you start saving now you'll be able to buy your grandkids those new brains they've been wanting while they'll still relatively young.


Man, the future is so weird.  I notice in those prediction pages they say a reasonable few things about military technology into the future, but they don't predict what kinds of wars will exist.  Big or little?  Territorial/political or resource-driven?  They do say that robots will eventually be fielded in warzones, and whichever side (the US) builds them firstest and bestest will enjoy a renewed boost in world power status.  On the question of world population they do mention the possibility of calamitous natural disaster, but, as far as I could see, nothing too much about human-caused sudden population declines.

Actually someone somewhere said that as human life extends, so eventually the suicide rate goes up.

Organ regeneration is the brass ring as far as I'm concerned.  But we'll face a brand new overcrowding problem once people stop dying.l

I'm sure the people down at Soylent Industries will find a simple solution to that problem.