Scientists' prediction: nanorobots will defeat many diseases in the future

Professor of theoretical physics at New York University Michio Kaku is famous throughout the world for his bold predictions. He was the first representative of official science to defend such crazy 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 invisible and instantly moving him to any point on the globe or even another planet.

2020: Nanorobots will repair diseased cells

By this year, the Earth's civilization will have conquered many diseases that are currently considered incurable. Kaku connects these expectations with a breakthrough in diagnostics. Human health will be monitored 24/7 by household appliances stuffed with electronic chips. And even a regular visit to the toilet will be combined with an unnoticeable 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 installed in your toilet. And then one day you go to the toilet again, the chip makes an instant analysis and finds cancer cells in you long before a tumor appears.

Chips will be built into more than just plumbing. A microscopic video camera and chip can be embedded, for example, in an aspirin tablet. Swallow it, the camera films your stomach and transmits the information to a button-sized supercomputer implanted, for example, in your finger. And if things get serious, this computer will call a doctor itself - not from a clinic, but a virtual one. And he will use a special device to launch a portion of nanoparticles - "smart bombs" - into you, which will fight your diseased cells.

2025: genes will be recorded on a flash drive

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

2030: Computers will disappear

• Computers will become invisible because they will be everywhere, like electricity today - millions of chips will be hidden in the wall, ceiling, floor. Disposable computer devices will appear. The necessary files will be written to portable microcircuits, possibly implanted directly into the body.

And the Internet will be accessed via contact lenses. The image will be formed before the eyes using translucent LEDs that do not interfere with vision. The device will be able to recognize faces, automatically translate from foreign languages, and display other information in the field of view. The University of Washington (Seattle) is already working on a prototype of such a device. Thanks to virtual programs, people will be able to watch movies in which they themselves will play the main roles.

2035: Old organs will be replaced with new ones

This year, various “spare parts” for the human body are expected to appear on the open market.

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

2040: Other people's thoughts will be read

The boldest prediction: people will probably master telepathy. But not magical, but technical.

• Already today, paralyzed patients are implanted with microchips in their brains, with the help of which they learn to write emails, play video games and surf the Internet by the power of thought, - explains the essence of the forecast another colleague of Kaku, Kendrick Kay from the University of California at Berkeley. - And engineers at Honda Corporation have already begun to create a "dictionary of thought", thanks to which it will be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience using only measurements of brain activity.

2045: Mammoths will be revived

This year, scientists will bring extinct animals back to life using genetic manipulation.

• Experts have already managed to clone an animal that died 25 years ago using DNA samples taken from its remains, - comments on Kaku's forecast doctor of biology Robert Lanza from Advanced Cell Technology Corporation. - It is possible to revive mammoths. In addition, the Neanderthal genome has already been decoded, and geneticists are planning to revive this species.

2050: We will sail around the Universe

In order to travel to other planets, Kaku is betting on the creation of a solar sail - a spacecraft with an engine that works by pressing sunlight on a mirror surface. With its help, it is possible to accelerate to half the speed of light - 150 thousand km / sec., and then it will be possible to turn around to Mars in just three months.

Around the same time, a breakthrough in space tourism should occur, connected with the creation of a space elevator. A lift powered by solar batteries will rise along a cable almost one hundred thousand kilometers long, consisting of super-strong carbon nanotubes. It is planned that the device will launch up to 100 tons of cargo into orbit once a week. People will also rise into space along it. The American company Liftport Group is testing the prototype of the elevator.

2055 - 2095: will be different...

• ...cars: All cars will be equipped with a built-in navigation system and will be controlled by computers. Accidents will virtually disappear. Cars will become cheaper than the places to park them.
• ...airplanes: Airplanes will begin to warn pilots and dispatchers about any malfunctions. In addition, if necessary, they will be able to turn into missiles.
• ...at home: Homes will be equipped with huge screens that will allow their inhabitants to communicate with their loved ones anywhere in the world. Virtual assistants will look after children, and robots will do household chores.
• ...work: Commuting will become pointless. Employees will be able to communicate with colleagues from anywhere in the world using special office programs.

2100: Everything will come from nothing

Scientists' dreams of "programmable matter" will come true, allowing objects to change shape just like the robot in the movie "Terminator 2."

• Today, special microchips the size of a pinhead, so-called catoms, have already been created, says Professor Kaku. By changing their electric charge, they can rearrange themselves, so that they take the form of a sheet of paper, a cup, a fork, or a plate. And perhaps the time will come when entire cities will rise in the desert at the push of a button.

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

Another point of view.

Dr. Jonathan HUEBNER, a physicist at the US Defense Department Research Center:

"Progress will stop in 2014"

• According to my forecasts, the rate of progress will slow down in the very near future. Moreover, it may 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 emergence of technical innovations and the world population. The higher this percentage, the more progressive we are. Thus, society reached its greatest technological heyday at the end of the 19th century. Having plotted a graph of the scientific and technical development of our civilization, my colleagues and I predicted that by 2014 the rate of emergence of technical innovations per capita will fall to the medieval level.

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