technology on the cusp of remedying genetic aberration, it seems that
Kurzweil didn’t dream fantastical enough. Once we become the ultimate
genetically modified organism, augmented humanity with superhuman
intelligence is right around the corner. This will occur, claims Kurzweil,
with nanotechnology and robotic intelligence.
Biological evolution crafted a species that can think and manipulate its
environment. The human species is now “succeeding in accessing—and
improving—its own design and is capable of reconsidering and altering
these basic tenets of biology.”^15 Over the next quarter-century, as
machines surpass our general intelligence, and become a billion times
more capable of learning and remembering, we will incline toward Life
3.0. As non-biological intelligence transcends biological intelligence,
humanity will, no doubt, reverse-engineer our cognitive life, “modeling it,
simulating it, reinstating it on more capable substrates, and modifying and
extending it ...”^16 Because biological evolution moves so slowly, building
everything from simplistic, folded proteins, all the while processing
thought in a still-mysterious manner at a relatively glacial pace,
Singularity will usher in an unquenchable thirst to think like a robot.
Utilizing nanotechnology and BioMEMS, first for disease and later for
superhuman enhancement, it seems that the march toward a transhuman
reality is likely. Lots of smart people think this is our destiny, and it will
happen sooner than you think. In fact, the non-biological portion of
humanity will ultimately predominate. One hundred years ago, one-third
of the Western world was infected with tuberculosis, and it was impossible
to imagine a life without those around you hacking and coughing as you
plodded along manure-filled dirt roads. But today, I am sure you have
never known a single person with TB.
The revolutions that have changed our world, including the industrial,
transportation, and energy revolutions, happened more rapidly than anyone
could have conceived of at their onset. But they will all pale in comparison
to the upcoming phases of the implant revolution.
The final stages of the implant revolution will be the most sophisticated
technological revolution in the four-billion-year history of life on earth,
because it will be a boutique enterprise of defying evolution and crafting
our cyborg future.