neil gershenfeld
October 2008 
On the Future of Diet, Gas Emissions, and Dying
~C4Chaos
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
John Tierney posted a quick run through of Kurzweil's version of the singularity.
"Do you have trouble sticking to a diet? Have patience. Within 10 years, Dr. Kurzweil explained, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want without gaining weight.
"Worried about greenhouse gas emissions? Have faith. Solar power may look terribly uneconomical at the moment, but with the exponential progress being made in nanoengineering, Dr. Kurzweil calculates that it’ll be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in just five years, and that within 20 years all our energy will come from clean sources.
"Are you depressed by the prospect of dying? Well, if you can hang on another 15 years, your life expectancy will keep rising every year faster than you’re aging. And then, before the century is even half over, you can be around for the Singularity, that revolutionary transition when humans and/or machines start evolving into immortal beings with ever-improving software." [read more]
Speaking of which, IEEE Spectrum has a special report on the Singularity. Check out Ray Kurzweil and Niel Gershenfeld: Two Paths to the Singularity. It's a must-read for every techno and transhumanist geeks :)
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I can totally agree with the predictions in diet drugs, clean energy and even longevity technology, but do they really think they can create consciousness in a machine? I think that genre needs to stay in Hollywood.
~Peace
David, i'm a bit skeptical too. then again, it doesn't have to be in a machine. digital form looks more promising. check out Project Blue Brain.