SCAR 2003 Opening Session

Raymond Kurzweil
Inventor of computer-based speech recognition technology and futurist author of the best selling book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, and a 2002 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Click here for a complete biography of Raymond Kurzweil

Click here for Ray Kurzweil's Foreword to the new SCAR Electronic Reporting Primer

The Impact of 21st Century Technology 
on Human Health and Society

Communication bandwidths, the shrinking size of technology, our knowledge of the human brain, and human knowledge in general are all accelerating. Three-dimensional molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level "strong" AI well before 2030.  The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse-engineering of the human brain, a process well under way.  

Once nonbiological intelligence matches the range and subtlety of human intelligence, it will necessarily soar past it because of the continuing acceleration of information-based technologies, as well as the ability of machines to instantly share their knowledge. Intelligent nanorobots will be deeply integrated in the environment, our bodies and our brains, providing vastly improved health, extended longevity, full-immersion virtual reality incorporating all of the senses, experience "beaming," and enhanced human intelligence.  The implication will be an intimate merger between the technology-creating species and the evolutionary process it spawned.