About Biosingularity
The rate of technical progress amongst humans has been exponentially increasing. According to Ray Kurzweil, as we discover more effective ways to do things, we also discover more effective ways to learn, i.e. language, numbers, written language, philosophy, scientific method, instruments of observation, tallying devices, mechanical calculators, computers, each of these a major advance in our ability to account for information occurring increasingly close together.
Already within the past sixty years, life in the industrialized world has changed almost beyond recognition except for living memories from the first half of the 20th century. This pattern will culminate in unimaginable technological progress in the 21st century. I believe there is a good chance we will achieve technological singularity as predicted by Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil, although more conservatively than Kurzweil’s predictions, within the next 50-60 years.
The convergence of biology with nanotechnology and information technologies will soon create an unprecendent ability to understand and manipulate biological systems. Inspired by the idea of singularity, I have coined the term Biosingularity to define a time when we will be able to engineer new biological systems and have complete molecular control in manipulating existing life forms.
As we approach biosingularity, we will first eliminate most chronic cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, infectious diseases and cancer, which will extend average human life to about 100. I anticipate we could achieve this goal by 2030 - 2040.
The next stage, which is to slow and stop human aging process, is a much harder problem and not possible with our current knowledge. However, the technological advances during the next 30-40 years will allow us to manipulate biological systems at levels not conceivable now.
Soon after this second stage biosingularity should arrive quickly, which will provide us near complete understanding and technological capability to reengineer any biological system. This technological power will allow us not only to stop but also to reverse the aging process and amplify human intelligence and capabilities to unimaginable levels.
I started this blog to chronicle the remarkable advances in biological systems and hopefully also to provide a conceptual framework to discuss reverse engineering biological systems and its profound ramifications for the future of humanity.
January 3, 2006 at 3:23 am
[...] Happened upon an interesting blog today (it was on the WordPress “Hot Blogs” list) called Biosingularity. From the author’s About page: The convergence of biology with nanotechnology and information technologies will soon create an unprecendent ability to understand and manipulate biological systems. I have coined the term Biosingularity to define a time when we will be able to engineer new biological systems and have complete molecular control in manipulating existing life forms. [...]
October 1, 2006 at 7:11 pm
hey, stumbled across your blog recently, and it’s absolutely wonderful - exciting and informative stuff. just wanted to thank you for your excellent data-churning work!
April 4, 2007 at 2:10 pm
THANK YOU FOR THE WORK YOU PUT INTO THIS COLLECTION OF INFO. IT HAS SAVED ME ALOT OF TIME…………….
April 14, 2007 at 4:14 pm
nice blog, even if a little bit utopic. I wonder how you estimate to “eliminate most chronic cardiovascular, infectious diseases and cancer … by 2030 - 2040″. Doing cancer research I really hope it, but more realistically it’ll take longer. Now the best drugs developed in the field of molecular medicine, that is various monoclonal antibodies, prolong cancer patients life of few months. Probably in the next decades, cancer vaccines will arrive on the clinic, but judging from the research on animal models, this treatment will prolong cancer patients life of few years. This is my personal opinion.
May 20, 2007 at 6:49 am
its good
May 28, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Great site; I spend a lot of energy on health and find your site to be a great source of info.
Regarding Fernando’s comment on cancer, there are several nanotechnology approaches for cancer that have been apparently quite successful on mice and are slated to begin human trials this year. I would think cancer is likely to be curable in most cases within 10 years.
July 18, 2007 at 1:22 am
Great read.
September 27, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I would like to use your movie on HIV replication in some of my HIV/AIDS lectures.
The use will be for educational purposes only and I will credit you as an author.
If you agree, please send me a copy of the file to incorporate it in my lecture.
Thanks in advance for your attention to my request
Salvador Alvarez, MD
January 6, 2008 at 12:23 am
Your HIV video is absolutely fantastic….what a great website….you
are doing a very nice job…keep up the good work….it really has helped my understanding of complex subjects. Thank you very much.
Allan M. Malkasian
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
and Amateur Science Student
February 27, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Have a nice day !
March 16, 2008 at 7:52 am
I believe that we will live FOREVER one day. I know it sounds a bit stupid, but considering the advances in cloning and stem cells, it won’t be long when we could culture and grow tissues in the lab. Supposing a man has a damaged kidney or an ischemic heart tissue, just inject the stem cells, they will home-in, and presto! Say, after 10 years, another organ fails; then cut it off and replace with its clone. NO ORGAN REJECTION!Moreover, nanobots, brainbow (technique for mapping the neural circuitry),PET,fMRI and various other biomedical devices will help us explore the human physiology.
We live until we die (may be from asteroid impact, nuclear mishap, expansion of the sun and engulfing earth in intense heat etc.) If you consider Kurzweil or Moore’s law (number of transistors on a chip will double every 2 years), they also, in some way hint that nothing is sacrosanct in science.