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Time travel is a cool idea that people have thought about for a really long time. But, we haven’t figured out how to do it yet. One scientist thinks we might be able to go back in time soon.
Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist and futurist, has an interesting theory.
He talks about something called longevity escape velocity. What is it? It’s when our life expectancy increases by more than a year every year. Sounds wild, right?
Kurzweil, who used to work at Google, believes we’ll reach this point by 2029. He points to the super-fast medical breakthroughs we’ve seen lately as evidence.
“We got the COVID vaccine out in ten months,” Kurzweil mentioned in a chat with Bessemer Venture Partners. “It was created in just two days because we sifted through billions of mRNA sequences quickly.”
He added that new advances like simulated biology are why we’ll make big strides soon. Imagine getting back four months of life each year thanks to science!
By 2029, he predicts you won’t lose any years; instead, you’ll gain one. Crazy, huh?
But don’t get too excited—this doesn’t mean living forever. Accidents and diseases still pose threats.
“Our bodies are always renewing,” Kurzweil explained. “Most of it dies and recreates constantly. Science will extend this process indefinitely.”
Once we hit longevity escape velocity, you won’t age or become more likely to die each year.
You might even be less likely to die! But accidents could still happen.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Kurzweil’s predictions are spot-on.
He did get some things right before: cell phones, laptops, WiFi, cloud computing, and even a computer beating a chess champ by 1997.
