Below we have posted a video of Juan Enriquez at the 2009 TED conference explaining the convergence of engineering in genetics, organs, and robotics. Think you don’t have time for a 9 minute video? We challenge you to listen to the first two minutes and see if you can take yourself away from watching the rest.
In 9 minutes Juan eloquently describes how major disruptive advances are coming to human civilization much faster than people realize. This is exactly what Singularity Hub is all about!
- Off the shelf biological components are being created that allow people to build organisms as if they were building a car or a machine.
- Tissues and organs that will someday replace our old ones are being grown in the lab.
- Man-made mechanical ears and eyes are on a path to not only match the capabilities of their natural counterparts, but shortly thereafter to exceed them.
So where will all of this take us? According to Juan we are on a path that will convert us from Homo Sapien to what he calls Homo Evolutis, or “hominids that take direct and deliberate control over the evolution of their species…and others. In other words Juan predicts a biologically based singularity, and it is coming in the next 100 years, no the next 1,000 years.
Check out the video below:
The above video was edited to take out the first 10 minutes of Juan’s talk, which focused on the US economy. To see the full length, original video you can go here. If you like Juan’s ideas, you might want to check out his 2007 TED talk or his 2003 TED talk. You can read his bio.