Latest post in my blog on popular science:
Some predictions by Ray Kurzweil for 2020
https://populscience.blogspot.com/2022/10/some-predictions-by-ray-kurzweil-for.html
Regards,
To play the devil’s advocate a bit…
Computing devices not held in the hand, but which will become parts of the body .
OTOH, wearables are quite popular–the various smart watches being the most obvious example. Not part of the body, but somewhat more “integrated.” Perhaps a move in the “right” (from his perspective) direction. If we wanted to be technical, we could say that things like pacemakers and insulin pumps are, or at least contain, computing devices, but they surely aren’t what he had in mind.
Smart phones without a screen,
This, I think, is the closest, at least by late 2022 (i.e., today). It isn’t “beaming images directly on our retinas,” but VR headsets are gaining in popularity. And surely virtual meetings (even though mostly in 2D) exploded in 2020.
Computing devices not held in the hand, but which will become parts of the body .
OTOH, wearables are quite popular–the various smart watches being the most obvious example. Not part of the body, but somewhat more “integrated.” Perhaps a move in the “right” (from his perspective) direction. If we wanted to be technical, we could say that things like pacemakers and insulin pumps are, or at least contain, computing devices, but they surely aren’t what he had in mind.
Kurzweil has used similar arguments to assert that he got previous forecasts right. Around the year 2000, he predicted that by 2010 we’d have computers integrated with our clothing. By 2010 he said that this had happened, because we were carrying a mobile phone in our pocket.
_Smart phones without a screen,_This, I think, is the closest, at least by late 2022 (i.e., today). It isn’t “beaming images directly on our retinas,” but VR headsets are gaining in popularity. And surely virtual meetings (even though mostly in 2D) exploded in 2020.
But virtual meetings were also happening many years before. In fact, I participated in a virtual meeting with Ray Kurzweil during the eighties! So this is not what he meant.
Regards,