The Next 20 Years Of Gaming Or Technology
By: John Vinson
The GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) has been going full blast all week. All kinds of speeches have been given, video games have been announced, and game trailers have been watched. One particular speech really stands out above the rest, and what’s funny is that is has very little to do with video games.
The speech was entitled, “The Next 20 Years Of Gaming”. The speaker was Ray Kurzweil, a world renowned inventor and futurist. This man has created ground breaking technologies such as print-to-text machines, and the first CCD flat-bed scanner. If you want to see a full list of his work visit his GDC summary here, let’s just say I could write about ten articles worth or more on his accomplishments.
The speech name “The Next 20 Years Of Gaming”, is a little misleading, as he spoke more on just the future of technology itself. According to Kurzweil’s predictions, you can expect to see computer technology become cheaper to manufacture. Therefore the cost of higher-end computer technology could see a significant decrease. Kurzweil went on to speculate that as soon as twenty years, we could be creating fake blood cell size computers that could perform the same functions as our own blood cells. Not only would these blood cells work, but Kurzweil says they could be made even more efficient than the blood cells our body creates.
Another important technology that Kurzweil touched on was nanotechnology. He goes on to say that this technology could solve the world’s energy crisis within two decades. Nanotechnology would greatly effect solar panels, which at the current state are expensive to make, and are still very inefficient. With nanotechnology, Kurzweil explains that solar panels could one day become more cost efficient to use than oil.
Another interesting trend to look out for is the average life expectancy among humans. He believes that in 15 years we could begin expanding our life expectancy a year for every year that passes. Kurzweil speaks on the advancement of medical technology, “We didn’t stay on the ground…We didn’t stay on the planet. And we have not stayed within the limitations of our biology.”
It’s so refreshing to hear ideas such as this from one of the most respected people in the world of technology. Alot of times you hear random people spouting off about different things that could happen, that it becomes hard to discern what’s serious and what isn’t. It’s safe to say you can take Kurzweil’s words to heart, and the topics he introduced are nothing short of amazing.