Weak technological superpowers now versus real superpowers later

I had several articles about the only enhancements that matter are ones for better health and business productivity.

– Enhancement of health and longevity
– increased lifespan
– reduced frailty
– increased healthspan
– improved immune system (disease immunity)
– regeneration and fast healig
– tissue engineering
– intelligence and economic productivity boosting

possibly
-radiation immunity and adaptations to make living and working in space have no health impacts.

Stronger muscles and bones for reduced frailty

Myostatin inhibition will happen for athletes (hundreds of thousands to millions. About 7-10 million steroid users for athlete performance but mainly for vanity looks. Guys want the muscles for the chicks.

The main benefit is for safely and boosting muscle for the elderly. Less frailty/ combat sarcopenia (muscle version of osteoporosis.

Bone density genetic treatment. Fight osteoporosis.

Wearable enhancement

There are all kinds of wearable tech for superhuman powers. But almost no one buys infrared goggles or constantly carries binoculars or microscopes. Although addons to iphones and android are making it easier to have microscope and lab analysis add-ons.

More “wearable powers” are coming with terahertz style vision to see through objects like the old x-ray vision powers.

There is a revolution that is happening with online and video training. Look at all of the skills and know how that you can get and understand from youtube videos. I figured out how to diagnose and fix my washing machine and learn how to dance Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Beat it. There is an app for solving the Rubics cube.

Augmented reality from Google Glasses will help with just in time knowledge and task guidance.

There will soon be tens of thousands and perhaps millions of exoskeletons. There will be the lower body exoskeletons like the HULC system and lightweight, flexible exoskeletons like the warrior web.

Energy Harvesting

There are shoes which may be able recover 20 watts of energy from when our feet hit the ground while walking or running.

Work from 2009 on energy harvesting from a knee brace.

Energy Harvesting rubber sheets

Radical enhancement of longevity of intelligence

The biggest societal impacts will be if George Church and Craig Venter are right and it will be possible to genetically boost cognitive capabilities by ten times and have radical life extension. The other would be full blown molecular nanotechnology and nanobots.

China has been working on a genetic study of people with an IQ over 160 for three years and will publish findings in two months. This could lead to genetic engineering or drugs that help to boost cognitive function perhaps to the IQ 160+ level.

There is a genetic study of supercentinarians (people how live past 110 years of age) There is a great deal of research to support the theory that supercentenarians’ longevity is hereditary. The siblings of supercentenarians are up to 17 times more likely to survive to age 100 than the siblings of non-supercentenarians. Many of these individuals also enjoy increased and lifelong resistance to disease, suffering far less age-related morbidity.

Cheap and readily available whole genome engineering capabilities should at least enable maximizing genetics to the peak levels that are seen in the population now (110+ years of lifespan and IQ of 160+).

An exocortex is a theoretical artificial external information processing system that would augment a brain’s biological high-level cognitive processes. An exocortex with zettaflops of processing power and trillions of qubit quantum computer seems like the lower end of what would be possible in about 30 years.

If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks