Inventor, scientist, genius talks of future at Emerson Center

VERO BEACH — Standing before a sold-out crowd at the Emerson Center Saturday afternoon,

inventor, genius, scientist, entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil answered questions on the cure
for cancer, universal health care and bio-terrorism.
After a scintillating hour-long lecture that touched on the exponential progress of
information technology, Kurzweil held rapt an audience at the Celebrated Speakers Series
that ranged in age from pre-teens to 80-somethings with his predictions for the future.
A member of the Inventor Hall of Fame with 18 honorary doctorates, Kurzweil advises
presidents, world leaders and researchers.
“I had dinner with Gorbachov,” he started one story. President Bill Clinton honored him
with the National Medal of Technology. He has started nine successful companies and created
speech recognition software, music synthesizers and the flat bed scanner.
Dressed in a dark suit with a loud tie and his blackberry worn on the hip like a six-shooter,
the diminutive futurist started his story at the beginning — age 5 when he decided that if
he “could put things together just the right way I could achieve some sort of transcendence.”
His mind is amazing as is his understanding of time. “Imagine the world without search
engines,” he said. “They have only be in existence for 10 years. Thirty years ago I started
to study information technology trends and trajectories and if there was a way to predict
the future. I found they follow amazingly predictable trajectories.”
Much was made of the difference between linear thinking and exponential thinking. Our
future lies in the exponential — events are happening so quickly it is hard to predict what
is next. For example, in a discussion on the enhanced human brain, Kurzweil pointed out
Parkinson patients already can have chips that repair the damage from the disease embedded
in their brains. The future is now.
“There is a doubling of the power of the brain every year,” Kurzweil said, “The nature of
the future is not apparent.”
What is apparent is that technology will continue to become more powerful, ever smaller
and make us smarter. Kurzweil pointed out that his Blackberry was a brain extender that
makes him smarter. “I often use it when I am being interviewed,” he said. “If someone asks me about someone’s theory and I don’t remember it clearly I can look it up and have the information immediately.”
Information technology has gone beyond artificial intelligence to include other areas such
as health and medicine and energy. Soon solar power will provide for all our energy needs
releasing us from dependence on fossil fuels, Kurzweil explained. “There is 10,000 times more
sunlight than we need. ”And, we will be able to manufacture what we need — or as Kurzweil described it, we will be able to “print out” three-dimensional objects. That will happen about 2020 and range from
low-cost housing to clothes.