Ray Kurzweil has some encouraging predictions:
Within 5 years the exponential progress in nanoengineering will make Solar power cost-competitive with fossil fuels
· Within 10 years we will have a pill that allows us all to eat whatever we feel like and never gain any unwanted weight
· In 15 years, life expectancies will start rising faster than we age
· In about 20 years 100% of our energy will come from clean and renewable sources, and a computer will pass the Turing Test by carrying on a conversation that is indistinguishable from a human’s.
He’s been right before. Steve Ballmer, meanwhile, predicts the end of dead-tree newspapers. I beat him to that one. My 2002 chat with Kurt Andersen on the subject is here.
The Dish 