The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

As AI transforms more and more areas of medicine, it will give rise to many similar trends. It is already starting to have a clinical impact,[109] but we are still in the early part of this particular exponential curve. The current trickle of applications will become a flood by the end of the 2020s. We will then be able to start directly addressing the biological factors that now limit maximum life span to about 120 years, including mitochondrial genetic mutations, reduced telomere length, and the uncontrolled cell division that causes cancer.[110] In the 2030s we will reach the third bridge of radical life extension: medical nanorobots with the ability to intelligently conduct cellular-level maintenance and repair throughout our bodies. By some definitions, certain biomolecules are already considered nanobots. But what will set the nanobots of Bridge Three apart is their ability to be actively controlled by AI to perform varying tasks. At this stage, we will gain a similar level of control over our biology as we presently have over automobile maintenance. That is, unless your car gets destroyed outright in a major wreck, you can continue to repair or replace its parts indefinitely. Likewise, smart nanobots will enable targeted repair or upgrading of individual cells—definitively defeating aging. More on that later in chapter 6. The fourth bridge—being able to back up our mind files digitally—will be a 2040s technology. As I argue in chapter 3, the core of a person’s ident...