
Ray Kurzweil – How the World Will Change - jonbaer
http://genius.com/Ray-kurzweil-how-the-world-will-change-annotated
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simonebrunozzi
1) Self-driving cars by 2017: 4 years ago I have "predicted" (with friends)
that Singapore will be the first nation to fully embrace self-driving cars.
The impact on real estate costs, and how people spend their time, will be
huge. 2017 is just around the corner; I doubt that we will see a significant
metropolitan area adopt self-driving cars as Ray suggests. Perhaps 2018 or
2019?

2) Personal assistant search engines by 2018: I think there will be the rise
of a personal AI that will help us do many things and act as the main
interface to the connected world; ONE thing this AI will do is help us perform
search engines. Ray implies that this will happen in 2018. I have no idea. It
seems extremely hard. I would guess 2020 or 2021?

3) Switch off our fat cells by 2020: I am scared by this. The reason is
simple: there are huge economic interests around health and nutrition, and any
medicine that can seamlessly help people reduce their fat and become lean is
so dangerous. What will the implications be for our health?

4) Click and print designer clothes at home by 2020: I think Ray is wrong
here. The ability to print clothes that have the same quality/design/motives
of normal clothes is quite hard. Perhaps it will work for simple ones.

5) Full-immersion virtual realities by 2023: Wow. VR seems to be exploding
these days. Just today FOVE launched their Kickstarter campaign
([https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fove/fove-the-worlds-
fi...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fove/fove-the-worlds-first-eye-
tracking-virtual-reality)), and it's an example of a real innovation in the
field (eye tracking). However, full immersion would essentially require the
ability to connect directly with the brain. Hmm... 2023? Don't know. Maybe
not.

6) Vertical agriculture: why? Why should vertical agriculture take off and
represent a substantial % of food produced?

7) 100% of our energy from solar by 2033: impossible. First, nuclear plants
and hydroelectric plants serve some purposes in addition to simply generating
electricity (military, energy storage, hydro management). Second, producing
enough solar panels to meet demand WILL SIMPLY NOT BE POSSIBLE by 2033. I
would more reasonably say 2045.

8) Stay young forever by 2040: well, if this is true, and if I'm still alive
by 2040, I will be 63 years old, and I will never die. What a fascinating,
intriguing, and scary thought. For some reason, I have big doubts on the
feasibility of making this happen by 2040. I do believe though that rich
people will have access to some form of DNA alteration tools that will help
them achieve something very remarkable - perhaps close to the "staying young
forever" promise.

I wish that, by 20XX, the world would be a better, fairer place. Inequality is
becoming a huge concern for me, and the power of megacorporations and the
control that they have over us is also a concern. I really wish we would
measure our progress mostly by this, and not simply by looking at
technological advancements.

