The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

by Ray Kurzweil

FRIEND OF FUTURIST BACTERIUM, 2 BILLION B.C.: So tell me again about these ideas you have about the future. FUTURIST BACTERIUM, 2 BILLION B.C.: Well, I see bacteria getting together into societies, with the whole band of cells basically acting like one big complicated organism with greatly enhanced capabilities. FRIEND OF FUTURIST BACTERIUM: What gives you that idea? FUTURIST BACTERIUM: Well already, some of our fellow Daptobacters have gone inside other larger bacteria to form a little duo.221 It’s inevitable that our fellow cells will band together so that each cell can specialize its function. As it is now, we each have to do everything by ourselves: find food, digest it, excrete by-products. FRIEND OF FUTURIST BACTERIUM: And then what? FUTURIST BACTERIUM: All these cells will develop ways of communicating with one another that go beyond just the swapping of chemical gradients that you and I can do. FRIEND OF FUTURIST BACTERIUM: Okay, now tell me again the part about that future superassembly often trillion cells. FUTURIST BACTERIUM: Yes, well, according to my models, in about two billion years a big society often trillion cells will make up a single organism and include tens of billions of special cells that can communicate with one another in very complicated patterns. FRIEND OF FUTURIST BACTERIUM: What sort of patterns? FUTURIST BACTERIUM: Well, “music,” for one thing. These huge bands of cells will create musical patterns and communicate them to all the other bands ...