Ray Kurzweil: Visionary or Crazy?

Like what you see here? Subscribe to Monkey Bytes, our free e-zine.

Here's a piece on Ray Kurzweil, a well-known "technologist" and visionary who often claims that technology will solve all of our problems. I think he's onto something here.

In a more general view, Kurzweil noted that the average life expectancy was growing at the rate of roughly three months a year. Now that information technology is affecting medicine, Kurzweil projected that in 15 years, the life expectancy of people will start expanding at the rate of more than a year for every year that passes, essentially not only delaying death, but actually pushing it further away with each passing day.

"We didn't stay on the ground," Kurzweil said. "We didn't stay on the planet. And we have not stayed within the limitations of our biology."

So what do you think? Do you want to live forever?