JOIN US Writing in the Sun newspaper, Ray Kurzweil, known to have predicted several scientific innovations in the past, said: “I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogram our bodies’ stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nano-technology will let us live for ever.”
“Computer technology and our understanding of genes - our body’s software programs - are accelerating at an incredible rate. “Kurzweil says blood cell-sized submarines called nanobots, which are already being tested in animals, will soon be used to destroy tumours, unblock clots and perform operations without scars.
Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively, he added. According to his theory -called the Law of Accelerating Returns- mankind will experience a billion-fold increase in technological capability for the same cost in the next 25 years.
"By the middle of the next century we will have back-up copies of the information in our bodies and brains that make us who we are. Then we really will be immortal,” Kurzweil said.
“Nanotechnology will extend our mental capacities to such an extent that we will be able to write books within minutes. If we want to go into virtual-reality mode, nanobots will shut down brain signals and take us wherever we want to go. Virtual sex will become commonplace. And in our daily lives, hologram like figures will pop in our brain to explain what is happening,” he said.
The 61-year-old, lauded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the smartest futurist on Earth, also predicts that humans in future will become cyborgs, with artificial limbs and organs.