Delve into the mysterious world of the human brain with renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil as he illustrates the evolution and potential future developments of the neocortex.
Gain insights into how new technologies like AI and nanobots could push us into an era of hybrid thinking, blending our biological capacities with digital augmentation.
The Emergence of the Neocortex
200 million years ago, our mammal ancestors developed a revolutionary brain feature dubbed the neocortex.
This thin layer, although the size of a stamp, was the catalyst to a paradigm shift, enabling mammals to invent new behaviors and increase their survival during the Cretaceous extinction event.
Importance of the Neocortex
Accounting for 80% of our brain, the neocortex, renowned for its distinctive ridges and folds, serves as the epicenter of our innovative prowess.
It successfully channels our basic drives and motivations into complex actions which range from composing poetry to developing applications.
Twenty years from now, we’ll have nanobots, because another exponential trend is the shrinking of technology. They’ll go into our brain through the capillaries and basically connect our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud providing an extension of our neocortex. – Ray Kurzweil
