Chief Google Engineer: Humans Will Have Hybrid Brains by 2030

In about 15 years, our brains will contain tiny robots that will connect us to the internet, or whatever the internet will have become by then.

So said leading inventor, futurist and director of engineering at Google Ray Kurzweil today at the Exponential Finance conference in New York. By 2030, nanobots, tiny robots made from DNA strands, will connect our brains directly to the cloud, which will contain thousands of computers and alter our intelligence and way of thinking as we know it.

“Our thinking then will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking.”

By the late 2030s or early 2040s, Kurzweil believes our thinking will be mostly non-biological and we’ll also have the ability to back-up our brains. Immortality, anyone? Kurzweil said:

“We’re going to gradually merge and enhance ourselves … In my view, that’s the nature of being human — we transcend our limitations.”

According to CNNMoney, in the 1990s, Kurzweil made 147 predictions about what the future will look like in 2009. Those predictions included people predominantly using portable computers, wireless connections and having computer displays built directly into eye-glasses.

In 2010, a review of his predictions came out to be 86% correct. One thing he was wrong about was that we’d have self-driving cars by 2009. Kurzweil explained:

“Now that’s not completely wrong. If I had said 2015, I think it would’ve been correct, but they’re still not in mainstream use. So even the [predictions] that were wrong were directionally correct.”

When addressing the greatest fear of technology, the birth of artificial intelligence, Kurzweil vaguely states we have a moral obligation to pursue the advancement of technology, but somehow we have to control potential dangers.

“As I wrote starting 20 years ago, technology is a double-edged sword. Fire kept us warm and cooked our food but also burnt down our houses. Every technology has had its promise and peril.”

Even if Kurzweil is only 80% correct in his prediction, it’s safe to say we are going to see some insane technological advancement in our lifetime. Who’s afraid? Who’s excited?

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