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Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director

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On Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:56:19 -0800, Juarez Peace wrote:

> Google made a very important hire this past week when it decided to
> bring on famed futurist Ray Kurzweil as its new director of engineering.
> What makes the hire particularly intriguing is Kurzweil is equal parts
> brilliant and insane: He is a pioneer in fields such as speech
> recognition technology but he also thinks he will live forever after he
> uploads his consciousness onto a computer.

If you'd have told a 14th-century peasant that there'd be a huge merchant 
class in the future who would sit in huge metal cylinders eating meals 
and drinking wine while the cylinders hurtled through the air faster than 
a speeding arrow across oceans and continents to bring them to far-flung 
business opportunities, the peasant would have classified you as insane. 
And he'd have been wrong to the tune of a few gazillion frequent-flyer 
miles.

>     By 2010, “computers… will become essentially invisible: woven into
> our clothing, embedded in our furniture and environment.” Although the
> concept of “wearable” computers has been tossed around quite a bit,
> we’re a long way off from a time when Samsung (005930) will be able to
> sell its first Galaxy Sweater model. (Page 312)

A smartphone in a pocket seems to be close enough. And I saw a home 
recently with small computerized gadgets inset into the *floor vents*. 
Cloud-computing-connected TVs and other items are becoming commonplace.

> Kurzweil, who is now 64 years old, knows that there’s a chance that his
> flesh body (or as he calls it, “Body 1.0″) could die before he gets to
> upload his brain into a computer and fly around the world as a swarm of
> nanobots. To ensure that he lives long enough to see such technological
> marvels, Kurzweil says he takes “250 supplements (pills) a day” and
> receives “a half-dozen intravenous therapies each week (basically
> nutritional supplements delivered directly into my bloodstream, thereby
> bypassing my GI tract).” (page 211)

Has he also signed up for cryonics?

> While that may sound excessive to you flesh-based humans, it’s also the
> price Kurzweil is willing to pay for a far-flung chance at immortality.
> So while you may scoff at Kurzweil’s projections right now, he may have
> the last laugh when you’re dying in a hospital and he’s whirring about
> as a software-based human in Body 2.0.

So Google hired Kurzweil. The really interesting question, then, is if 
anyone's getting consultancies from Eliezer Yudkowsky ...

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A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Juarez Peace <joe.snodd@gmail.com> - 2012-12-22 06:56 -0800
  Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Highway to Hell <HtH49439112@gmail.com> - 2012-12-23 01:06 +0000
    Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director anyone <ieGJnr4aQXRb!uzEL@z³> - 2012-12-23 01:47 +0000
    Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-22 18:03 -0800
      Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Highway to Hell <HtH49439112@gmail.com> - 2012-12-23 21:55 +0000
        Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director spk <jhic@speak.invalid> - 2012-12-23 12:45 -0600
          Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Nadegda <nad318b404@gmail.invalid> - 2012-12-28 12:30 +0000
            Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-28 21:25 +0000
              Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director She's a Witch of Trouble in Electric China Blue <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-28 21:58 -0800
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-29 08:35 +0000
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director She's a Witch of Trouble in Electric China Blue <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-29 01:44 -0800
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-29 11:58 +0000
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director She's a Witch of Trouble in Electric China Blue <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-29 04:09 -0800
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-29 19:11 +0000
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director She's a Witch of Trouble in Electric China Blue <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-30 03:21 -0800
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-30 14:36 +0000
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director She's a Witch of Trouble in Electric China Blue <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-30 07:26 -0800
                Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google's new engineering director snipe@spambin.fsnet.co.uk (Sn!pe) - 2012-12-30 17:20 +0000
  Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-22 18:02 -0800
  Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Swifty <steve.j.swift@gmail.com> - 2012-12-23 07:30 +0000
  Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-12-23 09:23 -0800
    Re: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-23 10:21 -0800

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