Thanks¸ that actually helps a lot, I didn’t get that it was from the voice of someone in the future. I still don’t see any way to make sense of that as a “prediction”, i.e. something that is true but was not fully recognized in 1999.
The closest thing I can think of that would make sense is if he were claiming that the neocortex comprises many specialized regions, each with its own topology and architecture of interneuronal connections (cf zhukeepa’s post a couple days ago). But that’s not it. Not only would Kurzweil be unlikely to say “brain” when he meant “neocortex”, but I also happen to know that Kurzweil is a strong advocate against the idea that the neocortex comprises many architecturally-different regions. Well, at least he advocated for cortical uniformity in his 2012 book, and when I read that I also got the impression that he had believed the same thing for a long time before that.
I think he put that in and phrased it as a prediction just for narrative flow, while setting up the subsequent sentences … like if he had written
“It is now fully recognized that every object is fundamentally made out of just a few dozen types of atoms. Therefore, molecular assemblers with the right feedstock can make any object on demand...”
or whatever. The first sentence here is phrased as a prediction but it isn’t really.
Thanks¸ that actually helps a lot, I didn’t get that it was from the voice of someone in the future. I still don’t see any way to make sense of that as a “prediction”, i.e. something that is true but was not fully recognized in 1999.
The closest thing I can think of that would make sense is if he were claiming that the neocortex comprises many specialized regions, each with its own topology and architecture of interneuronal connections (cf zhukeepa’s post a couple days ago). But that’s not it. Not only would Kurzweil be unlikely to say “brain” when he meant “neocortex”, but I also happen to know that Kurzweil is a strong advocate against the idea that the neocortex comprises many architecturally-different regions. Well, at least he advocated for cortical uniformity in his 2012 book, and when I read that I also got the impression that he had believed the same thing for a long time before that.
I think he put that in and phrased it as a prediction just for narrative flow, while setting up the subsequent sentences … like if he had written
“It is now fully recognized that every object is fundamentally made out of just a few dozen types of atoms. Therefore, molecular assemblers with the right feedstock can make any object on demand...”
or whatever. The first sentence here is phrased as a prediction but it isn’t really.