Communications of the ACM
Kurzweil: The Human Brain on It
Futurist Ray Kurzweil believes information technology is accelerating the rate at which the world is changing.
Credit: Helene Delillo
Information technology (IT) is causing the rate at which the world is changing to accelerate, says inventor, futurologist and 1978 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award recipient Ray Kurzweil.
Kurzweil says language, the first information technology, developed over hundreds of thousands of years, and the time frame for new technologies grew progressively shorter, with cell phones being popularized in Western culture in seven years. "Imagine asking prehuman humanoids, 'what's it going to be like when you invent language, art and science?'" Kurzweil asks. "Today, we can understand the question and take a guess."
Kurzweil says the next major change will occur in the human brain, which will grow using the power of IT. "The world changes rapidly, and in fact, it changes more and more rapidly, fueled by the exponential growth of our information technology," Kurzweil says. "It is the application of linear logic to how technology will change that gets us into trouble."
Exponential improvements in price, performance, and size take place with technologies that make an impact, he says, noting that the first Kurzweil Reading Machine cost $50,000 and was as large as a washing machine, but now the technology is built into software and can read any book. IT and business leaders must think ahead to what the world will hold in the future, he says.
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