The book was written in 2011 (8 years ago), but most of the technologies are still acute (I’ll describe separately his new book of 2018 - The Future of Humanity).
So, as always, 30-seconds overview or 3 main thoughts of the book:
1. Exponential technologies will drastically change the way we live and work. Chips have already made it, and will continue its way - to the internet if everything (enabling telekinesis). The next unified interface will be first glasses / lenses and then just your brain and AR all enabled by AI
2. Technologies like genetics, nanobots and stem cells will make us healthier, fight cancer and make us live longer (so go and make your genetic test immediately!) And afterwards make us even mechanic or virtual beings by transferring our consciousness to a digital medium
3. We’re making our way to become a United Planet Civilization (till the end of the age). And we won’t stop and become a Star - Galactic - and finally Extragalactic civilization.
And 3-minutes overview for more details)
1. We’re facing the exponential growth. Moore’s Law. At least in chips development. Commoditization of chips is leading to IoT.
2. The Cave Man Principle
1. Since the dawn of humanity 200 000 years ago humans have undergone very little evolutionary change
2. Our brains and psychology isn’t much different
3. Our primary goal has always been to reproduce and pass on our DNA - Desire to attract mates with a high social standing - Technologies to become mainstream products must not only be useful, but also have big social value (show off our status)
3. The next unified interface might be a computerized contact lens or the glasses. This also enables augmented reality (both beaming images directly into your retina) with embedded image recognition (and I will add voice and NLP (natural language processing))
4. Wisdom of the crowd - crowdsourcing - will enable you to know at least all product reviews (but I think Kaku underestimates the power of this technology - I will cover that in detail in other posts)
5. Future technologies for health
1. Fighting with cancer (Gene therapy (ie P53); Nanobots - the size of a molecule (hitch to antibodies and lead them to cancerous cells and then activate them, leaving the rest of the body unscathed; Cancer prevention)
2. Nanobots and smart clothes will also be used for diagnostics
3. Stem cells will enable organ replacement
4. Genetic manipulation will increase the lifespan
6. Environment
1. We should care about environment and social stability in order to make it to 2100
2. Oil is going to end soon (Superconductors - create a thin, dense magnetic field when magnets are placed upon them - transportation to replace fossil-fuel. As an example - Japan’s Maglev train (commercial viability of revamping the entire world’s transport infrastructure with this technology is still low)
7. Future of the Human Being
1. Telekinesis will be available due to our brain connected to the chips all around us
2. We’ll have to get used to the coexistence with fully conscious robots (with the help of True AI)
3. In the future the line between real and artificial will be blurred. Consciousness transfer to a digital medium will be possible (transcending our human bodies)
8. The future of our civilization:
1. Planet civilization. The amount of energy generated (from the sun) - 10^17 Watt. If not a natural disaster or human stupidity - we’ll inevitably enter this phase of development till 2111 (symptoms: 1 billion of personal computers; 2 billion people in the internet; 30% of which speak English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese people talk between each other in English, 90% of 6 000 languages, existing today, will vanish till 2050.
2. Star civilization. The amount of energy generated (from 100 stars) - 10^27 Watt - 10 billion times more. We’ll spent 1200-2500 years to get there. So - 3211 - 4511 year is the target😉
3. Galactic civilization. The amount of energy generated (from 10 billion stars) - 10^37 Watt
4. Extragalactic civilization. The amount of energy generated (from 1 trillion galaxies or compared energy from the dark matter) - 10^47 Watt
9. Actionable ideas from the book:
1. Have your genes sequenced
2. Reduce waste
3. Use new kinds of transportation (not using fossil fuel)
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