A new future, the picture of which we described in a previous article about connecting a person to the Internet, according to the assumption of a number of researchers, awaits mankind in the next 20 years. What is the vector of human development in general?
Significant financial flows are invested in the development of the quality of human life. The main sources of deterioration in the quality of life in general are all kinds of diseases and mortality. Work on solving these problems is carried out in seven main areas:
β’ Cryonics.
β’ Gene modification.
β’ Cyborgization.
β’ Digitization.
β’ Nanomedicine.
β’ Artificial intelligence.
β’ Regeneration. Biotechnology.
There are about 15 directions in total, and all of them describe how specifically, approximately by 2040, to achieve a radical increase in human life expectancy and improve health.
The struggle is going on simultaneously on several fronts.
What prerequisites can we already observe now?
β’ Social experiment in China with .
β’ A significant reduction in the cost of technology when approaching the point of technological singularity. The point at which the further development of technology will occur abruptly and unpredictably.
β’ Development of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of things, cloud computing and .
β’ from laying the groundwork for before the introduction of electronic signatures, document management and .
β’ Significant steps in the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and neural networks.
Most of all, we are interested in such areas as cyborgization, artificial intelligence, nanomedicine, regeneration and artificial organs, bioinformatics and the concepts of digital immortality.
There are a number of factors that give grounds for the most daring assumptions.
First of all, if we consider the current goals of human civilization, we will understand the tactical steps that it takes to achieve them.
Already now we are seeing the first steps of cyborgization - artificial limbs for the disabled, entirely controlled by signals from the brain. Relatively inexpensive and high-quality artificial hearts. In the near future, we can assume the emergence of biomechanical analogues of all internal organs.
In the context of creating a full-fledged life support system, this means interesting prospects and opportunities.
In the end, humanity is on the verge of creating an artificial autonomous body.
Some difficulties are with the central nervous system.
By the way, it is planned to use it to connect a person to the global network (cloud) by means of nanomedicine. In particular, we are talking about creating - B / CI (Human Brain / Cloud Interface).
In this case, the question is in the thought experiment "Theseus' ship", which can be formulated as follows: "If all the constituent parts of the original object were replaced, does the object remain the same object?" In other words, if humanity learns to replace human brain cells with equivalent artificial constructs, will a person remain a person or will it be an artificial lifeless creature?
A synthetic neuron is predicted by 2030. It would make it possible to connect the brain with the cloud even without the use of special neuronorobots, since it would greatly simplify the possibility of creating an interface.
What has already been implemented?
Already, Artificial Intelligence is planned to be used for diagnostics in medicine using tens and hundreds of thousands of parameters. This simplifies diagnosis and takes medicine to a new level.
Constant monitoring of health, which we are already observing at a primitive level in the form of bracelets that monitor the biological parameters of the current state of the body, is already yielding positive results. According to the latest data, people who regularly monitor their condition in this way live longer.
An artificial intelligence capable of understanding and interpreting natural languages ββwould be able to interact closely enough with humans to make progress together and at a rapid pace.
The computer will be able to generate new ideas, as it has now learned, albeit at a primitive level, to create, say, musical works.
So, what is next?
Thus, AI will improve itself, and this will inevitably lead to exponential growth in technology.
The creation of a complete model of the human brain will allow us to raise the question of the transfer of consciousness to a new carrier.
Certain prerequisites for the separation of the central nervous system come primarily from the medical industry. Successful experiments with dog head transplantation have been reported. As for the transplantation of a human head, so far the experiments are limited to the full connection of tissues, blood vessels, nerve fibers and even the spine on a dead body in 2017. The transplant queue for living disabled people is already long enough to expect experiments in the near future. In particular, one of the first applicants is a citizen of China, followed by a person from Russia.
This will lead science to the possibility of transplanting a head (original or modified) onto a new biomechanical body.
Genetic engineering is not far behind. The ultimate goal in it is to create a cure for old age and eliminate the errors of standard gene codes. The achievement of this is preceded by the screening of combinations of various methods for extending natural (non-cyborgized) life in mice, and the creation of ageless transgenic animals. The basis for this should be a new unified theory of aging and its mathematical modeling.
At our current level, these tasks are devoted to providing extensive databases that capture the connections between genomics, proteomics of aging and other sciences.
Initially, one of the immediate and achievable goals is the creation of a new type of drugs based on artificial selection to create symbionts leading to a longer lifespan. A prerequisite for their creation is an active study of the genome and those parts of it that are responsible for longevity.
Scientists do not bypass the issue of losses during DNA replication. It is known that when copying during life, some terminal sections of the molecule are shortened, and by old age copying occurs with losses, which leads to deterioration of the body.
At this stage, we are still learning to diagnose and evaluate the factors that affect aging as such. The first priority is to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs based on markers of aging and life expectancy.
Will we live to immortality?
For those who want to somehow live up to the leap in science that will increase life expectancy, not only the science of a healthy lifestyle is actively developing, but also cryonics, which should eventually allow bodies to be frozen on demand.
We are now on that part of the path when the most important thing is the ability to properly manage the volumes of information that our civilization has accumulated. For these purposes, we are already able to ensure its safety and availability, ordering and infrastructure for interaction, whether it be secure circuits certified by the state or high-availability optical rings.
Obviously, the described events are systematically developing and quite predictable.
Certain fears are caused by the scenarios that the modern cinematography introduces into the minds of the audience, showing either the uprising of machines, or the enslavement of people by new technologies. We, in turn, share optimistic forecasts, take care of our health and try to provide the highest possible level of quality for future projects.
Source: habr.com