I personally doubt an 'artificial brain' will be possible in 2037. Have
British Telecom gone absolutely mad?
M.
Forward: POSSIBLE FUTURES
British Telecom's last set of technological predictions prepared us for
data chips stored in our heads that were downloadable upon death. Last
week, BT's Applied Research and Technologies department presented us with
the sci-fi scenario of a cat that would book taxis on our behalf. Not
quite as essential as life after death, but for the couch-conscious of the
world, it may be seen as the best step forward.
The predictions can be chronologically listed as follows (commentary by
BT's Head of department, Ian Pearson) :
1999 : man-made blood and artificial pancreas will be available to
patients. We will also be "talking to our fridges" by introducing an email
pager that you talk to, with a magnet on the back to attatch to
aforementioned refridgerator.
2007 : we will be carrying "personal health monitors" to warn us before we
become ill.
2010 : artificial cats and dogs will be introduced
The robot "cat" is already here and living in Pearson's kitchen. "It would
not take much to add robotic legs and furry covering and replacing the
insides with a radio link to a pwerful computer. The cat could then be
your personal butler, booking taxis, doing your home shopping and sorting
out your accounts."
2015 : a bionic man will artifical legs will be a reality
"because of advances in processing speed and memory storage, computers wil
be more intelligent and creative than man in 2015. By 2025 we will be able
to read what the brain is thinking and feed information into it to
supercede learning."
2020 : Property values become so high that complete underground cities are
constructed, serviced by computerised appliances that will recognise our
desires by body language.
2030 : other artifical organs will be available such as lungs, kidneys,
liver and "senses"
2037 : artifical brain invented
"we will have minimised all technologies so that a computer the size of the
brain, but more powerful and able to control the human body, could be used
in brain transplants."
(data sourced from Daily Telegraph, 26.4.97)
_________