These days Foresight is focused on our Technology Roadmap and policy initiatives such as Open Source Physical Security. But we still have our visionary side, shown in a Fortune profile of Foresight advisor Ray Kurzweil, which also features Foresight director and X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis:
If you went around saying that in a couple of decades we’ll have cell-sized, brain-enhancing robots circulating through our bloodstream or that we’ll be able to upload a person’s consciousness into a computer, people would probably question your sanity. But if you say things like that and you’re Ray Kurzweil, you get invited to dinner at Bill Gates’ house—twice—so he can pick your brain for insights on the future of technology…
Diamandis says he buys completely into Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns and everything it implies…
It’s currently unfashionable to be so positive in one’s open-mindedness. But remember, Kurzweil has been right before.
It’s hard to say today whether Ray is correct on his timing projections, which are very dramatic, but he certainly is a very smart guy and worth listening to, as Bill Gates evidently agrees. —Christine
