A new future, the picture of which we described in the previous article about connecting humans to the Internet according to several researchers, awaits humanity in the next 20 years. What is the overall direction of human development?
Significant financial flows are being invested in improving the quality of human life. The main sources of deterioration in quality of life in general are various diseases and mortality. Work to address these issues is being conducted along seven main directions:
• Cryonics.
• Genetic modification.
• Cyborgization.
• Digitalization.
• Nanomedicine.
• Artificial intelligence.
• Regeneration. Biotechnology.
There are about 15 directions in total, and all of them detail how to approximately achieve a radical increase in human lifespan and health improvement by the year 2040.
The battle is being waged along several fronts simultaneously.
What prerequisites can we observe already now?
• A social experiment in China with .
• A significant decrease in technology costs as we approach the point of technological singularity. The point at which further technological development will occur abruptly and unpredictably.
• The development of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and .
• ranging from creating a foundation for to implementing electronic signatures, document flow, and .
• Significant steps in the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and neural networks.
We are most interested in areas such as cyborgization, artificial intelligence, nanomedicine, regeneration and artificial organs, bioinformatics, and concepts of digital immortality.
There are a number of factors that provide grounds for the most daring assumptions.
First of all, if we consider the current goals of human civilization, we will understand the tactical steps it is taking to achieve them.
Even now, we see the first steps towards cybernetic enhancement — artificial limbs for the disabled, fully controlled by signals from the brain. Relatively inexpensive and high-quality artificial hearts. Soon, we can expect the emergence of biomechanical analogs of all internal organs.
In the context of creating a complete life-support system, this signifies intriguing prospects and opportunities.
Ultimately, humanity is on the brink of creating an artificial autonomous body.
Some challenges arise with the central nervous system.
It is worth noting that it is planned to use this for connecting humans to the global network (cloud) through nanomedicine. Specifically, it involves creating — B / CI (Human Brain / Cloud Interface).
In this case, the question relates to the thought experiment 'Theseus's Ship', which can be formulated as follows: 'If all the components of the original object are replaced, does the object remain the same?' In other words, if humanity learns to replace the brain cells of a person with equivalent artificial constructs, will the person still be a person, or will it be an artificial lifeless being?
A synthetic neuron is predicted by 2030. This would allow linking the brain to the cloud even without the use of special neuro-nanobots, as it would greatly simplify the creation of an interface.
What is already being implemented?
Artificial intelligence is already planned to be used for diagnostics in medicine across tens and hundreds of thousands of parameters. This simplifies diagnostics and elevates medicine to a new level.
Constant health monitoring, which we already observe at a primitive level in the form of bracelets tracking biological parameters of the current state of the body, is already yielding positive results. According to recent data, people who regularly track their condition this way live longer.
An artificial mind capable of understanding and interpreting natural languages will be able to interact with humans closely enough for joint and rapid progress.
A computer will be capable of generating new ideas, as it has already learned, albeit at a primitive level, to create, for example, musical compositions.
And what's next?
Thus, AI will improve itself, which will inevitably lead to exponential growth in technology.
Creating a complete model of the human brain will raise the question of transferring consciousness to a new medium.
Certain prerequisites for the separation of the central nervous system primarily come from the medical field. There are reports of successful experiments in head transplantation in dogs. As for human head transplants, so far, experiments have been limited to fully connecting tissues, blood vessels, nerve fibers, and even the spine in a dead body in 2017. The waiting list for living patients is already sufficient for expecting experiments in the near future. Notably, one of the first candidates is a citizen of China, followed by a person from Russia.
This will bring science closer to the possibility of head transplantation (original or modified) onto a new biomechanical body.
Genetic engineering is also not lagging behind. The ultimate goal is to create a cure for aging and eliminate errors in standard genetic codes. This is preceded by screening combinations of various methods for extending natural (non-cybernetic) life in mice, creating ageless transgenic animals. The foundation for this should be a new unified theory of aging and its mathematical modeling.
At our current level, these tasks require extensive databases that record the connections between genomics, aging proteomics, and other sciences.
Initially, one of the nearest achievable goals is the creation of a new type of medicine based on artificial selection to develop symbionts that lead to an increased lifespan. The prerequisite for their creation is the active study of the genome and those sections that are responsible for longevity.
Scientists do not overlook the issue of losses during DNA replication. It is known that during copying throughout life, some terminal sections of the molecule shorten, and by old age, copying occurs with losses, leading to a deterioration of the organism.
At this stage, we are still learning to diagnose and evaluate the factors that influence aging as such. The primary task is to assess the effectiveness of drugs based on aging markers and lifespan.
Will we live to see immortality?
For those who want to somehow survive until the breakthrough in science that will allow an increase in lifespan, not only is the science of a healthy lifestyle actively developing, but so is cryonics, which should ultimately allow for freezing bodies until needed.
We are currently at a point where the most important thing is to manage the volumes of information that our civilization has accumulated. For these purposes, we are already capable of ensuring its preservation and accessibility, organization, and infrastructure for interaction, whether it be secure networks certified by the state or high-availability optical rings.
It is obvious that the described events are systematically developing and quite predictable.
Certain concerns are raised by the scenarios that modern cinema implants in the minds of viewers, depicting either the uprising of machines or the enslavement of humanity by new technologies. We, in turn, share optimistic forecasts, take care of our health, and strive to ensure the highest possible quality for future projects.
Source: habr.com
