Models and Theories in Human-Computer Interaction/Kurzweil & Future of Human Evolution

Theorist and scientist, Ray Kurzweil proposes that technology will progress at an exponential rate in the upcoming future. He sees the creation of technology as a process similar to evolution. Kurzweil’s core belief is that society is moving toward an age where humans and machine will be merged into a new evolved existence. Examples of his beliefs include the possibility of humans being able to live forever through the merging of machine and man. In addition, he predicts that nanotechnology will have the ability to augment human bodies and cure diseases such as cancer.

Kurzweil continues to explain his theory by saying that humans are far more intelligent than evolution suggests. He bases his predictions on the many creations human beings have created over the past few thousand years with significant attention paid to the evolution of the most recent years. According to Kurzweil, the law of accelerating returns predicts this will happen within decades. Many of Kurzweils predictions have come true in recent years, such as the example of a computer tablet and will become commonplace amongst society. In 20 years from now, Kurzweil predicts that society will be able to connect to the cloud via our brains without the use of devices, thus growing exponentially.

Kurzweil predicts that human beings will expand their neo cortex of their brain similar to how human beings did thousands of years ago and we as a species will make an evolutionary leap into the future.