The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

by Ray Kurzweil

In the very early stages of evolution information was encoded in the structure of increasingly complex organic molecules based on carbon. After billions of years biology evolved its own computer for storing and manipulating digital data based on the DNA molecule.

Another powerful approach is to start with biology’s information backbone: the genome. With recently developed gene technologies we’re on the verge of being able to control how genes express themselves. Gene expression is the process by which specific cellular components (specifically RNA and the ribosomes) produce proteins according to a specific genetic blueprint.

While every human cell has the full complement of the body’s genes, a specific cell, such as a skin cell or a pancreatic islet cell, gets its characteristics from only the small fraction of genetic information relevant to that particular cell type.

Gene expression is controlled by peptides (molecules made up of sequences of up to one hundred amino acids) and short RNA strands. We are now beginning to learn how these processes work.

The concept of controlling the genetic makeup of humans is often associated with the idea of influencing new generations in the form of “designer babies.” But the real promise of gene therapy is to actually change our adult genes.31 These can be designed to either block undesirable disease-encouraging genes or introduce new ones that slow down and even reverse aging processes.

Even faced with these obstacles gene therapy is starting to work in human applications.

“once you have the ability to program cells, you don’t have to be constrained by what the cells know how to do already. You can program them to do new things, in new patterns.”

It is likely, however, that we will eventually be able to synthesize the necessary DNA by patching together the information derived from multiple inactive fragments.

If you need pancreatic islet cells or kidney tissues—or even a whole new heart—to avoid autoimmune reactions, you would strongly prefer to obtain these with your own DNA rather than the DNA from someone else’s germ-line cells.

The economics of factory farming place a very low priority on the comfort of animals, which are treated as cogs in a machine. The meat produced in this manner, although normal in all other respects, would not be part of an animal with a nervous system, which is generally regarded as a necessary element for suffering to occur, at least in a biological animal. We could use the same approach to produce such animal by-products as leather and fur.

Cloning is likely to prove to be like other reproductive technologies that were briefly controversial but rapidly accepted. Physical cloning is far different from mental cloning, in which a person’s entire personality, memory, skills, and history will ultimately be downloaded into a different, and most likely more powerful, thinking medium. There’s no issue of philosophical identity with genetic cloning, since such clones would be different people, even more so than conventional twins are today.

Genes are obviously important, but our nature—skills, knowledge, memory, personality—reflects the design information in our genes, as our bodies and brains self-organize through our experience. This is also readily evident in our health.

With regard to our brains, we all have various aptitudes, but our actual talents are a function of what we’ve learned, developed, and experienced. Our genes reflect dispositions only. We can see how this works in the development of the brain. The genes describe certain rules and constraints for patterns of interneuronal connections, but the actual connections we have as adults are the result of a self-organizing process based on our learning. The final result—who we are—is deeply influenced by both nature (genes) and nurture (experience).

Experiences prior to the gene therapy will have been translated through the pretherapy genes, so one’s character and personality would still be shaped primarily by the original genes. For example, if someone added genes for musical aptitude to his brain through gene therapy, he would not suddenly become a music genius.

Nanotechnology: The Intersection of Information and the Physical World

Nanotechnology has the potential to enhance human performance, to bring sustainable development for materials, water, energy, and food, to protect against unknown bacteria and viruses, and even to diminish the reasons for breaking the peace [by creating universal abundance]. —NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION NANOTECHNOLOGY REPORT

Nanotechnology promises the tools to rebuild the physical world—our bodies and brains included—molecular fragment by molecular fragment, potentially atom by atom.

Meanwhile rapid progress has been made, particularly in the last several years, in preparing the conceptual framework and design ideas for the coming age of nanotechnology.

Biology will never be able to match what we will be capable of engineering once we fully understand biology’s principles of operation.

But he took the concept one step further and proposed a “kinematic constructor”: a robot with at least one manipulator (arm) that would build a replica of itself from a “sea of parts” in its midst.

Furthermore, any specific assembler would be restricted to building products from its sea of parts, although the feasibility of using individual atoms has been shown. Nevertheless, such an assembler could make just about any physical device we would want, including highly efficient computers and subsystems for other assemblers.

the value of everything in the world, including physical objects, would be based essentially on information. We are not that far from this situation today, since the information content of products is rapidly increasing, gradually approaching an asymptote of 100 percent of their value.

Chip designers don’t specify the location of each of the billions of wires and components but rather the specific functions and features, which computer-aided design (CAD) systems translate into actual chip layouts. Similarly, CAD systems would produce the molecular-manufacturing control software from high-level specifications. This would include the ability to reverse engineer a Product by scanning it in three dimensions and then generating the software needed to replicate its overall capabilities.

DNA serves as a data-storage system, transmitting digital instructions to molecular machines, the ribosomes, that manufacture protein molecules. And these protein molecules, in turn, make up most of the molecular machinery.

Indeed, as we deepen our understanding of the information basis of life processes, we are discovering specific ideas that are applicable to the design requirements of a generalized molecular assembler. For example, proposals have been made to use a molecular energy source of glucose and ATP, similar to that used by biological cells.

We could introduce DNA changes to essentially reprogram our genes (something we’ll be able to do long before this scenario, using gene-therapy techniques). We would also be able to defeat biological pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells) by blocking any unwanted replication of genetic information.

Biological systems are limited to building systems from protein, which has profound limitations in strength and speed. Although biological proteins are three-dimensional, biology is restricted to that class of chemicals that can be folded from a one-dimensional string of amino acids. Nanobots built from diamondoid gears and rotors can also be thousands of times faster and stronger than biological cells.

DNA is proving to be as versatile as nanotubes for building molecular structures. DNA’s proclivity to link up with itself makes it a useful structural component. Future designs may combine this attribute as well as its capacity for storing information. Both nanotubes and DNA have outstanding properties for information storage and logical control, as well as for building strong three-dimensional structures.

Grasping and letting go of molecular objects in a controlled manner is another important enabling capability for molecular nanotechnology assembly.

“nanotechnology holds the answer, to the extent there are answers, to most of our pressing material needs in energy, health, communication, transportation, food, water,” but he remains skeptical about molecular nanotechnology assembly.

Nanoscale scaffolds have been used to grow biological tissues such as skin. Future therapies could use these tiny scaffolds to grow any type of tissue needed for repairs inside the body.

A particularly exciting application is to harness nanoparticles to deliver treatments to specific sites in the body. Nanoparticles can guide drugs into cell walls and through the blood-brain barrier.

The nanopill is small enough to pass through the cell wall and delivers medications directly to targeted structures inside the cell.

By 2030 the price-performance of computation and communication will increase by a factor of ten to one hundred million compared to today. Other technologies will also undergo enormous increases in capacity and efficiency. Energy requirements will grow far more slowly than the capacity of technologies, however, because of greatly increased efficiencies in the use of energy, which I discuss below. A primary implication of the nanotechnology revolution is that physical technologies, such as manufacturing and energy, will become governed by the law of accelerating returns. All technologies will essentially become information technologies, including energy.

Moreover, the logic gates and memory bits will be smaller, by at least a factor of ten in each dimension, reducing energy requirements by another thousand. Fully developed nanotechnology, therefore, will enable the energy requirements for each bit switch to be reduced by about a trillion. Of course, we’ll be increasing the amount of computation by even more than this, but this substantially augmented energy efficiency will largely offset those increases.

Manufacturing today also devotes enormous energy resources to producing basic materials, such as steel. A typical nanofactory will be a tabletop device that can produce products ranging from computers to clothing. Larger products (such as vehicles, homes, and even additional nanofactories) will be produced as modular subsystems that larger robots can then assemble.

Products can be made from new nanotube-based and nanocomposite materials, avoiding the enormous energy used today to manufacture steel, titanium, and aluminum.

Although the roughly 50 percent deflation rate for information-based products and services will continue throughout this period, the amount of valuable information will increase at an even greater, more than offsetting pace.

Nanocatalysts to obtain greater energy yields from coal, at very high temperatures.

The emerging paradigm for energy storage will be fuel cells, which will ultimately be widely distributed throughout our infrastructure, another example of the trend from inefficient and vulnerable centralized facilities to an efficient and stable distributed system.

Scientists at the University of Texas have developed a nanobot-size fuel cell that produces electricity directly from the glucose-oxygen reaction in human blood.128 Called a “vampire bot” by commentators, the cell produces electricity sufficient to power conventional electronics and could be used for future blood-borne nanobots.

This extends further the remarkable versatility of nanotubes, which have already revealed their prowess in providing extremely efficient computation, communication of information, and transmission of electrical power, as well as in creating extremely strong structural materials.

Estimating a global population of around ten billion (1010) humans, Freitas estimates around 1016 (ten thousand trillion) nanobots for each human would be acceptable within this limit.132 We would need only 1011 nanobots (ten millionths of this limit) per person to place one in every neuron. By the time we have technology of this scale, we will also be able to apply nanotechnology to recycle energy by capturing at least a significant portion of the heat generated by nanobots and other nanomachinery and converting that heat back into energy. The most effective way to do this would probably be to build the energy recycling into the nanobot itself.133 This is similar to the idea of reversible logic gates in computation, in which each logic gate essentially immediately recycles the energy it used for its last computation.

Current multilayer cells now provide around 34 percent efficiency. A recent analysis of applying nanocrystals to solar-energy conversion indicates that efficiencies above 60 percent appear to be feasible.

At an estimated thickness of several microns, solar panels could ultimately be as inexpensive as a penny per square meter. We could place efficient solar panels on the majority of human-made surfaces, such as buildings and vehicles, and even incorporate them into clothing for powering mobile devices. A 0.0003 conversion rate for solar energy should be quite feasible, therefore, and relatively inexpensive.

Nanotechnology will eventually provide us with a vastly expanded toolkit for improved catalysis, chemical and atomic bonding, sensing, and mechanical manipulation, not to mention intelligent control through enhanced microelectronics.

Contemporary nanotechnology research and development involves relatively simple “devices” such as nanoparticles, molecules created through nanolayers, and nanotubes. Nanoparticles, which comprise between tens and thousands of atoms, are generally crystalline in nature and use crystal-growing techniques, since we do not yet have the means for precise nanomolecular manufacturing. Nanostructures consist of multiple layers that self-assemble. Such structures are typically held together with hydrogen or carbon bonding and other atomic forces. Biological structures such as cell membranes and DNA itself are natural examples of multilayer nanostructures.

zinc oxide nanoparticles provide a particularly powerful catalyst for detoxifying chlorinated phenols. These nanoparticles act as both sensors and catalysts and can be designed to transform only targeted contaminants.

Nanotechnology has given us the tools … to play with the ultimate toy box of nature—atoms and molecules. Everything is made from it…. The possibilities to create new things appear limitless. —NOBELIST HORST STÖRMER

Robert A. Freitas Jr.—a pioneering nanotechnology theorist and leading proponent of nanomedicine (reconfiguring our biological systems through engineering on a molecular scale), and author of a book with that title150—has designed robotic replacements for human blood cells that perform hundreds or thousands of times more effectively than their biological counterparts. With Freitas’s respirocytes (robotic red blood cells) a runner could do an Olympic sprint for fifteen minutes without taking a breath.