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Name: James Gaquin
From: California
Bio: The first computer I programmed had 4K of memory. I was 12. I have watched attentively since.
Area of Expertise: Futurist/Consultant
Topic: Communication
Headline: Communication is intelligence
Nutshell: The future becomes unpridictable when a second new thing is invented before anyone knows or assimilates the first thing. That's the singularity - inevitable communication failure - for some.
Vision:I’ll predict two things: 1) That the singularity will not hurt some people at all, and 2) why they will be unaffected.
Second prediction explained first:
2) By 2030, computers and biotech will have merged into Cyborganics; computers will be grown, not built, at least what becomes of the chips.
Once DNA or a similar artificial DNA is mastered, it will be used to grow organic based logic gates – not silcon, think carbon, think artificial cells. A very small step is to grow neuron sized very simple cellular computers that will be injected passed the blood brain barrier into the human brain. These will have receptors that cause them to bond will neurons – all of them. I nick-named these Bull-Riders, as neurons look similar to Picasso’s cubist bulls.
The Bull Riders will do three things: transmit and receive signals from a wristwatch-sized computer; monitor the neurons firing; stimulate the neuron to fire when told to do so by the external computer.
This gives you a manipulatable external version of a human brain and an internal mapping that can influense the brain. All that is required is to understand that brain enough to maniupulate the nuerons, for example, you could create a perfect virtual reality, as its the mind’s eye that will see it. Think about it, its a robust concept.
1) By 2040, most people will become left behind as the singularity hits. The Singularity-Divide with take the place of the Digital Divide. It’s all about keeping up on what is happening this very instant. It becomes a technological habit that must be feed, at least as bad as any drug, as your lifestyle truly depends on it. Those left behind may survive, but those that can surf the Singularity wave will become the Elite. It will be like Dickensian England all over again. Can you change fast enough to keep up, can your mind deal with that change or will you have a nervous breakdown?
It’s already happening, natural selection is choosing who gets the big job, who falls out of society and barely gets by.
The Elite will quickly become transhuman. Cyborgs in the true sense.
The only thing that scares me is that the change happens so fast and so violently that no one can cope or adapt. I think that is the plot to The Terminator. Perhaps Aaarnold will survive to inherit the Earth.
Date Submitted: October 8, 2006
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