Ray Kurzweil On The Singularity
Jan. 18th, 2006 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldRay Kurzweil is a guest blogger on Non-Prophet, to promote the ideas in his latest book, "The Singularity Is Near."
"If people stop dying, isn’t that going to lead to overpopulation?
A common mistake that people make when considering the future is to envision a major change to today’s world, such as radical life extension, as if nothing else were going to change. The GNR [genetics, nanotechnology, robotics] revolutions will result in other transformations that address this issue. For example, nanotechnology will enable us to create virtually any physical product from information and very inexpensive raw materials, leading to radical wealth creation. We’ll have the means to meet the material needs of any conceivable size population of biological humans. Nanotechnology will also provide the means of cleaning up environmental damage from earlier stages of industrialization."
Another excerpt:
"With gene technologies, we're now on the verge of being able to control how genes express themselves. We now have a powerful new tool called RNA interference (RNAi), which is capable of turning specific genes off. It blocks the messenger RNA of specific genes, preventing them from creating proteins. Since viral diseases, cancer, and many other diseases use gene expression at some crucial point in their life cycle, this promises to be a breakthrough technology."
I had no idea that this technology even existed. We live in the most exciting time in human history.
"If people stop dying, isn’t that going to lead to overpopulation?
A common mistake that people make when considering the future is to envision a major change to today’s world, such as radical life extension, as if nothing else were going to change. The GNR [genetics, nanotechnology, robotics] revolutions will result in other transformations that address this issue. For example, nanotechnology will enable us to create virtually any physical product from information and very inexpensive raw materials, leading to radical wealth creation. We’ll have the means to meet the material needs of any conceivable size population of biological humans. Nanotechnology will also provide the means of cleaning up environmental damage from earlier stages of industrialization."
Another excerpt:
"With gene technologies, we're now on the verge of being able to control how genes express themselves. We now have a powerful new tool called RNA interference (RNAi), which is capable of turning specific genes off. It blocks the messenger RNA of specific genes, preventing them from creating proteins. Since viral diseases, cancer, and many other diseases use gene expression at some crucial point in their life cycle, this promises to be a breakthrough technology."
I had no idea that this technology even existed. We live in the most exciting time in human history.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 05:37 pm (UTC)I did know about the ability to turn off certain genes, only because of research I've been following where they turn off the gene (or set of genes) that allow us to store extra food as fat. They can turn it off in lab mice, allowing them to eat as much as they want without gaining weight. The drawback is if they stop eating for any length of time, they will die quickly.
Now if we can actually figure out what all of the various genes actually do, maybe this will be more useful. Right now, we only really know the function of a few select genes/groups of genes. Even that information is not as specific as some would like to think.