Forecast scientists: in the future nanorobots will defeat many diseases

Professor of theoretical physics at the University of New York Michio Kaku is famous throughout the world for his bold predictions. He was the first of the representatives of official science to stand up for such insane projects as the creation of a time machine and a perpetual motion machine, as well as the emergence of devices capable of turning a person into invisibility and instantly moving it to any point of the globe or even another planet.

2020: nanorobots will repair sick cells

By this year, the earthly civilization will triumph over many diseases that are now considered incurable. Kaku connects these expectations with a breakthrough in the field of diagnostics. For the health of a person around the clock will look after the electronic appliances stuffed with electronic chips. And even an ordinary trip to the toilet will be combined with an inconspicuous procedure for a complete medical examination of the body.

• Imagine that DNA chips, in which the DNA of bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells are encrypted, are embedded in your toilet bowl. And then one day you go to the bathroom again, the chip does an instant analysis and finds your cancer cells long before the appearance of the tumor.

Chips will be built not only in plumbing. Microscopic video camera and chip can be mounted, for example, in an aspirin tablet. Swallowed it, the camera removes the stomach and transfers information to a supercomputer the size of a button that is implanted, for example, into your finger. And if the matter is serious, then this computer will call the doctor himself - but not from the polyclinic, but virtual. And that with the help of a special device will launch into you a batch of nanoparticles - "smart bombs" that will fight your sick cells.

2025: the genes will be written to the flash drive

Each person will have a USB flash drive with its own genome recorded on it - it will replace the medical card. Deciphering hundreds of thousands of DNA will become much cheaper. Compare: if in 2009 a complete DNA map cost one million dollars, in 2010 - 50 thousand dollars, then in 2025 it will cost only $ 200.

2030: Computers will disappear

• Computers will become invisible, as they will be everywhere, like today's electricity, - in the wall, ceiling, floor, millions of chips will disappear. One-time computer devices will appear. The necessary files will be recorded on portable microcircuits, possibly implanted directly into the body.

And the entrance to the Internet will provide contact lenses. The image will be formed before the eyes with the help of translucent, not interfering eyesight LEDs. The device will be able to recognize faces, automatically translate from foreign languages and display other information in the field of view. Over the prototype of such a device today are already working at the University of Washington (Seattle). Thanks to virtual programs, people will be able to watch movies, the main roles in which they will perform themselves.

2035: old organs will be replaced by new ones

This year, it is expected the appearance in the free sale of various "spare parts" for the human body.

• Any organ we can grow from the patient's own cells, "says colleague Kaku, Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University. - Cells taken from the patient's body are sown onto the spongy plastic base. After the addition of the growth catalyst, the cells begin to multiply, and the base gradually dissolves. This will be a real revolution in bioengineering: there is no need to wait for the donor and there will be no rejection.

2040: other people's thoughts will read

The boldest forecast: people, perhaps, will master telepathy. But not magical, but technical.

• Already today, paralyzed patients are implanted in the brain with microcircuits, through which they are trained by the effort to write e-mails, play video games and surf the Internet, explains Kakru, Kendrick Kay of the University of California at Berkeley. - And Honda Corporation engineers have already started creating a "thinking dictionary", thanks to which it will be possible to restore the picture of a person's visual experience with the help of only measurements of brain activity.

2045: mammoths will be revived

This year, scientists will return to life extinct animals through genetic manipulation.

• Specialists already today were able to clone the animal that died 25 years ago on samples of DNA taken from its remains, - says Dr. Kanda, Doctor of Biology Robert Lanza from Advanced Cell Technology Corporation. - You can revive and mammoths. In addition, the gene of the Neanderthal man has already been deciphered, and geneticists are planning to revive this species.

2050: fly around the universe under sail

In order to travel to other planets, Kaku relies on the creation of a solar sail - a spacecraft with an engine working at the expense of pressure on the mirror surface of sunlight. With its help, you can accelerate to half the speed of light - 150 thousand km / sec, and then to Mars it will be possible to turn around in just three months.

Approximately at the same time, a breakthrough in space tourism, connected with the creation of a space elevator, should take place. On a cable length of almost one hundred thousand kilometers, consisting of heavy-duty carbon nanotubes, will climb a lift, powered by solar panels. It is planned that the device will put into orbit up to 100 tons of cargo once a week. On it people will ascend into space. The prototype elevator is tested by the American company Liftport Group.

2055 - 2095: will become different ...

•  ... Cars: All cars will be equipped with an integrated navigation system, and they will be managed by computers. Accidents will practically disappear. Cars will become cheaper than places for their parking.
•  ... Planes: Aircraft will start to warn pilots and dispatchers themselves about any malfunctions. In addition, if necessary, they can turn into rockets.
•  ... At home: The houses will be equipped with huge screens that will allow their inhabitants to communicate with their loved ones anywhere in the world. Virtual assistants will take care of children, and household chores are dealt with by robots.
•  ... Work: Travel to work will become meaningless. Employees will be able to communicate with colleagues, being anywhere in the world, with the help of special office programs.

2100: everything will arise from nothing

The dreams of scientists about "programmable matter" that will allow subjects to change outlines similar to how the robot did in the movie "Terminator 2" will come true.

• To date, there have already been created special microchips the size of a pinhead, the so-called Catholics, - says Professor Kaku. - Changing electric charge, they can regroup, thanks to which they take the form of a sheet of paper, then cups, forks, plates. And maybe there will be times when whole cities will get up in the desert at the push of a button.

And by this time a person will merge with robots. According to another expert, Dr. Rodney Brooks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the human body will so radically change with the help of genetic modifications that the development of homo sapiens will no longer be limited to Darwin evolution.

Another point of view.

Doctor of Physics, US Department of Defense Research Center Jonathan Hubner:

"Progress will stop in 2014"

• According to my forecasts, in the very near future the pace of progress will slow down. Moreover, they can reach the level of the Middle Ages. How is this possible? I think that the rate of development of civilization can be judged by the ratio between the appearance of technical innovations and the size of the world population. The more this percentage, the more progressive we are. Thus, the greatest technological prosperity of society reached the end of the XIX century. Having built a schedule of scientific and technical development of our civilization, my colleagues and I predicted that by 2014 the rate of appearance of technical novelties per capita will fall to the medieval level.

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