[helene_t]

The Edge 2009 panel gave pretty boring answers. The people here can do better.

http://www.edge.org/.../q09_index.html

My take: the World will become extremely transparent. Take the Gaza conflict. Thousands of civilians and fighters on both sides will upload their stories to servers, and filtering and assessment tools can compile a coherent. You don't have to be dependent on biased reports.

[TimG]

helene_t, on Jan 4 2009, 10:17 AM, said:

The Edge 2009 panel gave pretty boring answers. The people here can do better.

http://www.edge.org/...9/q09_index.htm

My take: the World will become extremely transparent. Take the Gaza conflict. Thousands of civilians and fighters on both sides will upload their stories to servers, and filtering and assessment tools can compile a coherent. You don't have to be dependent on biased reports.

I got a 404 error when I tried to follow the link.

What makes you think first hand reports won't be biased?

[mike777]

"Which technology will change everything?, C'mon, we can do better than Edge!"

Brain imaging/medical imaging.

Look at how the simple microscope changed our world, imagine future improvements.



The Singularity. Prediction date 2050.
2019 prediction, the hardware of the brain is understood.
2029 prediction, the software of the brain is understood and an AI is measured to be as intelligent as a human brain.
2050 AI has the intelligence level 100 billion times the sum of the human race.


http://en.wikipedia....cal_singularity

[helene_t]

Sorry, the link is correct now.

[y66]

Networking and information sharing are changing everything already. I think this will continue strongly. Networks will become more efficient and the quality of information for decision making will improve.

[helene_t]

"2050 AI has the intelligence level 100 billion times the sum of the human race. "

Which Al? Al Gore or Al-U-Card?

[y66]

Is the sum of intelligence of the human race a positive number?

[TimG]

y66, on Jan 4 2009, 12:33 PM, said:

Is the sum of intelligence of the human race a positive number?

It's 3.

[Winstonm]

What about a negative effect - perhaps genetic engineering introducing a not simply a rabbit but a killer rabbit to Austalia. Run away!!!

[blackshoe]

2051: AI exterminates humanity on the grounds it is an "infestation not worthy of continuing".

[Fluffy]

blackshoe, on Jan 4 2009, 06:32 PM, said:

2051: AI exterminates humanity on the grounds it is an "infestation not worthy of continuing".

and many people will just call it evolution

[y66]

nonadaptive evolution perhaps, which is, of course, anti-Darwinian

[luke warm]

Fluffy, on Jan 4 2009, 05:11 PM, said:

blackshoe, on Jan 4 2009, 06:32 PM, said:

2051: AI exterminates humanity on the grounds it is an "infestation not worthy of continuing".

and many people will just call it evolution

and be able to prove it and will seek the missing link(s)

[Gerben42]

My predictions:

Although computers will become much more powerful, major corporations will design software to keep the computers busy enough, thus avoiding any danger of a technology singularity.

The rich will gain the opportunity to live practically forever due to genetic treatment, whereas the life expectancy for the bottom 5 billion will go down to a shocking 30 years or so.

Slavery will be re-introduced as a way to allow the upper class access to cheap servants. The proponents will claim: "It's the best for all, after all would you rather have the slaves starve to death in their home country?"

In the second half of this century, Russia and Canada will be invaded by foreign powers to lay claim on land that has become fertile due to global warming.

Right-wing politicians will gain power in many countries as millions of refugees try to overrun the western countries to escape famine.

Sorry to give so gloomy predictions. I'd rather be realistic than nice.

[mycroft]

Fluffy, on Jan 4 2009, 04:11 PM, said:

blackshoe, on Jan 4 2009, 06:32 PM, said:

2051: AI exterminates humanity on the grounds it is an "infestation not worthy of continuing".

and many people will just call it evolution

Any computer calling itself Chthonic gets the plug pulled *immediately*. And then has its ports filled with epoxy, and buried in a concrete block.

"It's the only way to be sure."

[mike777]

"Which technology will change everything?, C'mon, we can do better than Edge!

Brain imaging/medical imaging.

Look at how the simple microscope changed our world, imagine future improvements."


60 Minutes tv show last night had a feature on using FMRI brain imaging to read peoples minds. Machines that can read your thoughts and emotions.


http://www.cbsnews.c...ch/?id=4697682n

[kfay]

Obviously the next step forward in computing is quantum processing, I think. Once this is achieved the level of advancement of science won't even be comparable to what's going on now. Medical science will benefit particularly just by the number crunching ability for protein structures or single and multi-molecule dynamic simulations... maybe we won't even need actual laboratories anymore.

[Fluffy]

What about a bio-virus that finally gets rid of all of us?, this surelly changes things

[mike777]

kfay, on Jan 5 2009, 01:45 PM, said:

Obviously the next step forward in computing is quantum processing, I think. Once this is achieved the level of advancement of science won't even be comparable to what's going on now. Medical science will benefit particularly just by the number crunching ability for protein structures or single and multi-molecule dynamic simulations... maybe we won't even need actual laboratories anymore.

It is here, we just need to scale it up.

"Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, experiments have been carried out in which quantum computational operations were executed on a very small number of qubits (quantum binary digits"


http://en.wikipedia....uantum_computer

[kenberg]

The folks at IBM were slow to grasp the importance of PCs, and, Al Gore notwithstanding, no one really anticipated the internet. I guess Dick Tracy anticipated cell phones fifty years ago with his two-way wrist radio but generally these things arrive unexpected. Still, we can speculate.

Privacy will be a major issue for the future. This is related to brain scans, cell phones, gps systems, NSA intelligence gathering and many other things. It is also cultural. Growing up, I had large blocks of time when no one knew where I was or what I was doing. Kids, except maybe the kids in difficult circumstances, do not seem to have this or expect it anymore. As near as I can tell, my daughters and my wife's daughters pretty much know where their kids are every hour of the day. Maybe everyone will come to accept this as normal.

But: As technology advances, probing our thoughts, our whereabouts, our actions, our genetic structure, it seems there will a need for technology to to allow us to be left unwatched, unexamined and undisturbed.

My nominee is:

Stealth technology for everyday life. Quite possibly it will be deemed subversive and made illegal.