Kurzweil, Transhumanism and You.

Some people already find reasons to get a little more intimate with their computers than they should (I'm looking at you, Bang Bros). Author, scientist, and inventor Ray Kurzweil takes the notion in that vein even one step further. 

Ray Kurzweil speaking at the Stanford Singularity Summit in 2009.

Kurzweil, a major figure in the Futurist and Transhumanist camps, foresees an eventual age where computers themselves reach a level of complexity and intelligence that they are as such accepted by humanity as one of our own. As he lectured a crowd of over 3,000 nerds at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas:

"We are a human-machine civilization. Everybody has been enhanced with computer technology... If we can convince people that computers have complexity of thought and nuance ... we'll come to accept them as human."

Kurzweil cites the rising number of smart phone users in the world as an indication of a continued trend towards true Transhumanism, wherein humanity begins to literally merge itself with technology and computers to the point where it's nearly impossible to tell where the human stops and the technology begins.  

Kurzweil also points to the empowering aspects recent technology has given to the average human as indicative of emerging Transhumanism, especially concerning the massive developments in how modern humans communicate and interact using high-speed Internet and social media. As Kurzweil also stated at the same conference:

"You can start world-changing revolution with the power of your ideas and the tools that everyone has... A kid in Africa has access to more information than the president of the United States did 15 years ago."

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!

Even the dreaded "Skynet Scenario", where computers become TOO intelligent and take over the world, is no sweat off Kurzweil's back. When asked about the chance of computers coming to dominate humans, Kurzweil replied that he is more concerned about what humanity might use this technology to do to itself, and sees it as not "us vs. them", but rather "us vs. us".

These are certainly some insanely interesting ideas. I totally agree that communication technology has allowed humans to interact and organize in ways never thought possible, and is in fact extremely empowering. I especially like the bit about the kid in Africa... indeed, anyone on earth with a computer and an Internet connection has access to the collective knowledge of all humanity, and of course, knowledge is (or at least can become) power. 

Personally, though, I do think that hardcore Transhumanism is a little misguided. In my opinion, Transhumanists often suffer from either a God Complex, an overzealous desire to see technology overrun human nature, or both. In this case, I suspect Kurzweil wants to see computers "become" human in an attempt to replace our current social problems with different ones.

At any rate, I do think that the emergence of nanotechnology is going to produce some very interesting uses for humans, some of which may give us abilities that we can only dream of right now. Whether or not it's going to produce the deeply intrinsic effects on Humanity that Kurzweil describes will be another matter entirely, one that remains to be seen.