Can science secure our future?
American futurist Raymond Kurzweil certainly thinks so – as explained in this article from the “New York Times”.
Key to understanding his optimism is appreciating that science grows not linearly but exponentially and acknowledging what Kurzweil calls the Law of Accelerating Returns:
“Scientists imagine they’ll keep working at the present pace. They make linear extrapolations from the past. When it took years to sequence the first 1 percent of the human genome, they worried they’d never finish, but they were right on schedule for an exponential curve. If you reach 1 percent and keep doubling your growth every year, you’ll hit 100 percent in just seven years.”