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Linear thinking

WN: Ramona is also a presence on your website, right? You can interact with her, ask her questions, and sort of test her artificial intelligence.

Kurzweil: Right. It’s a real 20-year project of mine, to create an AI that can pass the Turing Test.

WN: So in the movie’s narrative, Ramona the avatar is the main character?

Kurzweil: It’s a Pinocchio story. She detects a “gray goo” attack, an attack of self-replicating nanobots. The Department of Homeland Security is oblivious to this, and won’t listen to her, so she gets her other avatar friends to work on this. But she breaks some homeland security protocols in the process. She’s arrested -- and there’s a discussion about how you can arrest a virtual person. She hires (civil rights attorney) Alan Dershowitz to defend her, and also to establish her rights as a legal person. She feels she’s human enough to have human rights. There’s a whole courtroom scene, and finally the judge says, “OK, I’ll grant your legal rights if you can pass the Turing Test.” She hires Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, to help her become more human, and the plot goes on from there...

WN: So you’re trying to make people understand how the exponential advances in technology will abruptly and unexpectedly solve many of the world’s problems?

Kurzweil: Think how different the world was 10 years ago -- 10 years ago, most people didn’t use search engines. That sounds like ancient history now. Generally, people think linearly. I think it's critical that people understand that linear thinking no longer applies. If we capture one part out of 10,000 of sunlight that falls on the earth, we can solve our energy problems. And nanotech will give us the capacity to store (that solar energy). Radical life extensions mean that the current discussion of social security is completely unrealistic. People say, “Oh, there’s going to be a deficit in 2027.” Their model is based on linear predictions on longevity, productivity and economic growth. The situation will be different when you have 65-year-olds who look and act 35 years old.