Today, we have distributed computer projects such as Folding@Home and SETI@home, which are designed to use our unused personal computers to enhance our understanding of diseases and the cosmos, respectively. Pushing the envelope of cyberspace is the ability for the human consciousness to be uploaded to it prior to death. This is a prediction made by futurist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Ray Kurzweil.
In the film, Transcendence, A-list actor Johnny Depp plays Will Caster, a controversial scientist who envisions that when humans and computers become one (a phenomenon coined singularly), our knowledge and abilities to solve problems will be far superior to any human intellect. His mind is uploaded to an analog device after an assassination attempt is made on his life. He then convinces his widow, Evelyn, to upload him to the Internet in order to obtain more knowledge. Kurzweil predicts we will achieve this advancement by the end of the 2030's.
An additional prediction made in the film is that of the ability to have nanotechnology repair the human body to a better state than it was prior to its injury and/or illness. In the film, Caster's associate Martin is mugged and beaten while shopping. Will uses nanites to repair Martin's body where soon thereafter Martin is single-handedly hauling around large solar panel frames and a boy records him and uploads it to the Internet. A large following results. Kurzweil predicts this advancement by the end of the 2020's.
The ultimate goal is for humans to have their human experience and then be uploaded to analog devices in order to solve some of our world's problems. In the meantime, technology will advance to where humans will be injected with a chip, so that all of their information is available and accessible at the ready. Humans are known to have a difficult time accepting change until they come to a point in their life when they are forced to make life-changing decisions.
(Transcendence Trailer)
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