A Reminder Of Kurzweil's Projections
InformationWeek provides a reminder of Ray Kurzweil's trend-based predictions for the next few decades: "Fifteen years from now, it'll be a very different world. We'll have cured cancer and heart disease, or at least rendered them to manageable chronic conditions that aren't life threatening. We'll get to the point where we can stop the aging process and stave off death ... By the 2020s, we'll be adding a year of longevity or more for every year that passes ... scientists will be able to regrow our own cells, tissues, and even whole organs, and then introduce them into our bodies, all without surgery. As part of what he calls the 'emerging field of rejuvenation medicine,' new tissue and organs will be built out of cells that have been made younger." These end results of present trends are not pulled from thin air; they will come to pass if we work to ensure these trends continue - although I suspect the incompressible length of a business cycle run by humans means that the timeline is optimistic by a decade or more.
Link: http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=195200003