BY 2040, WE WILL LIVE IN AGELESS, DISEASE-FREE BODIES, EXPERTS SAY

By Dick Pelletier

     Imagine living in a body fashioned from “designer cells” that can never age or get sick; and sporting a mind that thinks millions of times faster than today’s brain. Though this may seem too optimistic to happen in just 33 years, experts believe that nanotech, biotech, infotech, and cognitive science advances over the next three decades could create this future by 2040.

     Author Ray Kurzweil, in The Singularity is Near, discusses how new technologies will improve our bodies. Today’s frail body version “1.0” has a high failure rate; over 50 million died last year, most from age-related causes. By 2025, projected biotech and nanotech revolutions will provide a more durable and capable version “2.0” body, which will be immune to most diseases.

     This brings us to version “3.0”; a powerful body made from nanomaterials, boasting a zero failure rate. Even if a destructive accident were to occur, technologies expected by late 2030s could construct a new body with simulations of the patient’s personality and memories, and allow life to continue. A reconstructed person may not even realize they had died.

     If converting your body to non-biological parts seems unnatural, it shouldn’t. Today, people routinely install cochlear implants to improve hearing, titanium hips to strengthen worn bones, and soon to come, neuron replacements to prevent brain disorders.

     Nanorex Chief Scientist Robert Freitas believes that tiny medical nanobots expected by late 2020s will help us upgrade our bodies. “However we won’t reengineer ourselves all at once,” he stresses, “It will be an incremental process one step at a time; and it could begin with artificial respirocytes replacing red blood cells, giving us an immense energy boost.”

     The next organ to replace could be the heart, a remarkable machine, but one that is too often subject to failure. Freitas has designed a heart-replacement system that would eliminate heart attacks.

     Eventually, our re-designed body would not require kidneys, bladder, liver, lower esophagus, stomach, intestines, bowel, or skeleton. The last to go would be skin, sex organs, mouth and upper esophagus, but these too could eventually be replaced with exotic “nano-skin”, which offers greater protection from physical force and extreme temperatures, and may even provide more enjoyable sex and touch.

     The most remarkable body “3.0” feature focuses on strengthening our brain. IBM hopes to reverse-engineer the brain by 2030, and with Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s efforts to capture thought at moment of creation, forward-thinkers believe we can one day replace all our neurons with nanomaterials that process thoughts at supercomputer speeds.

     Foresight Institute consultant John Burch predicts many of these body changes could begin in late 2030s, and he describes how the upgrades would be accomplished: A daily pill would supply materials and instructions for nanobots to format new cells and position them next to existing biological cells to be replaced. These changes would be unnoticeable to us, but within six months, we would be enjoying the benefits of a new body-part.

     Futurists see human body “3.0” as the next evolutionary step that could happen in time to benefit many alive today. Living in powerful bodies without fear of unwanted death will allow us to truly enjoy tomorrow’s “magical future.”

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.