Michio Kaku is a well-accomplished theoretical physicist. He has several books and TV shows, and a knack for explaining complex concepts in easy-to-understand ways.
This is long. Over an hour. So I will summarize some of Kaku’s points here:
This is long. Over an hour. So I will summarize some of Kaku’s points here:
at 12:10 Kaku discusses how Moore’s Law shows how the computer chip in today’s singing birthday card has more computing power than all the Alliled Powers did combined in 1945. We throw away that birthday card. In the future we will throw away computers, they will be cheap, portable, everywhere. Today, we take electricity for granted.
14:10 We will soon wear glasses/contacts that have facial recognition built in. They will also show any media you like—TV shows, movies, documents, etc. They will give you subtitles when someone talks to you in another language. Augmented reality will show relevant information about where you are. More on computerized contact lenses.
18:20 Cel phone and computers of the future. E paper will scroll out and you will be able to type on it. Wallpaper will be intelligent. Your living room wall will serve as your online meetup space: your second life avatar, your Facebook, your dating site, your face-to-face phone calls or dinners with non-local family members. It will contain your virtual pet who interactively takes care of your home.
22:22 In the future we will throw away computers, they will be cheap, portable, everywhere. Today, we take electricity for granted. We walk into a room and look for the light switch, assuming there is electricity. In the future, we will walk into a room and look for the internet plug in, assuming every room has internet. Cloud computing will allow our files to follow us throughout office/home/room.
23:45 Cars now drive themselves using GPS. This may help reduce accidents.
24:20 Your doctor will now be in your toilet. The toilet will analyze your fluids to determine if you have a good diet, health risk, even if you have cancer.
25:30 Chips will analyze your DNA. Genome scanning now exists. They can now give you an owner’s manual for your body. Genealogical lineage information will be instant. (At the time of this recording, Kaku states it costs $50,000. He predicts that in a few years it will be $1,000, and in 10 years it will cost around $100. Today--2 years later-- it costs between $1,000 and $100, depending on what company you go with)
27:00 We can now regrow and replace flesh, bone, blood, skin, and organs using your body’s own cells. (The first transplant has already been done)
29:50 Robots are only as smart as bugs right now, and take a long time to do anything. It will take a long time for these to advance.
32:55 Invisibility is possible, but it is 2 way. You need eye holes in order to see out. More on this.
35:30 ‘Telephathy’ is being developed. Paralyzed people can now control computers exactly as if living, using only their brain and a special computer chip attached to their head. They will soon be able to take a photo of what you are seeing as you dream. People can now fly planes using only their brain waves. "Our subjects can't exactly describe what it is they learn to do," said Dr. Grant McMillan, director of the biocybernetics project at Wright-Patterson's Aeronautical Systems Center. "But it's a little like learning to walk. After a while, they say, they no longer have to think about what they're doing."
DISCUSSION OF LONG TERM TECHNOLOGIES START AT 39:00:
40:30 a great summary of Robert Heinlein’s All You Zombies. If you thought Back to the Future was incestuous, wait until you hear about the further perils of time travel.
45:35 Math professor Charles Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass was the first vision of a wormhole.
46:40 Types of civilizations and where we stand vs where hypothetical alien species stand. We are Type 0 moving toward Type 1 (planetary), which we will reach within 100 years. Star Trek= Type 2 (interstellar). Type 3 can move through wormholes.
53:00 ANSWERING QUESTIONS:
1)The FDA can only measure ‘medicines’ that penetrate the skin. This is why there so many non-working medicines are allowed to be sold.
2)Certain animals do not die of old age. Starting to look at genetics to prevent aging, but it is a long way off.
3)Comparing the Hadron Collider and effort to find Higgs boson particle to God’s Big Bang.
4)The viability of the worlds imagined in the books Brave New World and 1984.
5)Genetic privacy will soon be a problem as gene sequencing becomes cheaper and easier.
