The Singularity is Near (2005) Kurzweil's Predictions (with intellectually added predicitons)

2010

• Supercomputers will have the same raw computing power as human brains, though the software to emulate human thinking on those computers does not yet exist. (IBM Sequoia)
• Computers will start to disappear as distinct physical objects, meaning many will have nontraditional shapes or will be embedded in clothing and everyday objects.
• Full-immersion audio-visual virtual reality will exist in some form.

2010s

• The decade in which "Bridge Two", the revolution in Genetics/Biotechnology, is to reach its peak. During the 2020s, humans will have the means of changing their genes; not just "designer babies" will be feasible, but designer baby boomers through the rejuvenation of all of one's body's tissues and organs by transforming one's skin cells into youthful versions of every other cell type. People will be able to "reprogram" their own biochemistry away from disease and aging, radically extending life expectancy.
• Computers become smaller and increasingly integrated into everyday life.
• More and more computer devices will be used as miniature web servers, and more will have their resources pooled for computation.
• High-quality broadband Internet access will become available almost everywhere.
• Eyeglasses that beam images onto the users' retinas to produce virtual reality will be developed. They will also come with speakers or headphone attachments that will complete the experience with sounds. These eyeglasses will become a new medium for advertising which will be wirelessly transmitted to them as one walks by various business establishments. This was fictionalized in Dennō Coil.
• The VR glasses will also have built-in computers featuring "virtual assistant" programs that can help the user with various daily tasks.
• Virtual assistants would be capable of multiple functions. One useful function would be real-time language translation in which words spoken in a foreign language would be translated into text that would appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses.
• Cell phones will be built into clothing and will be able to project sounds directly into the ears of their users.
• Advertisements will utilize a new technology whereby two ultrasonic beams can be targeted to intersect at a specific point, delivering a localized sound message that only a single person can hear.

2015

• By now, it is likely that "clean a house" will be within the capabilities of a household robot.

2018

• 10¹³ bits (=10 TB) of computer memory—roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain—will cost $1000.

10 terabytes have been already reached for 535$ (Seagate Barracuda 10TB) in mid 2016.

2020s

• The decade in which "Bridge Three", the revolution in Nanotechnology, is to begin: allowing humans to vastly overcome the inherent limitations of biology, as no matter how much humanity fine-tunes its biology, they will never be as capable otherwise. This decade also marks the revolution in Robotics (Strong AI), as an AI is expected to pass the Turing test by the last year of the decade (2029), meaning it can pass for a human being (though the first A.I. is likely to be the equivalent of an average, educated human). What follows then will be an era of consolidation in which nonbiological intelligence will undergo exponential growth (Runaway AI), eventually leading to the extraordinary expansion contemplated by the Singularity, in which human intelligence is multiplied by billions by the mid-2040s.
• Early in this decade, humanity will have the requisite hardware to emulate human intelligence within a $1000 personal computer, followed shortly by effective software models of human intelligence toward the middle of the decade: this will be enabled through the continuing exponential growth of brain-scanning technology, which is doubling in bandwidth, temporal and spatial resolution every year, and will be greatly amplified with nanotechnology, allowing us to have a detailed understanding of all the regions of the human brain and to aid in developing human-level machine intelligence by the end of this decade.
• Computers less than 100 nm in size will be possible.
• As one of their first practical applications, nanomachines are used for medical purposes.
• Highly advanced medical nanobots will perform detailed brainscans on live patients.
• Accurate computer simulations of the entire human brain will exist due to these hyperaccurate brainscans, and the workings of the brain will be understood.
• Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells and extract waste will exist (though not necessarily be in wide use) by the end of this decade. They will make the normal mode of human food consumption obsolete.
• By the late 2020s, nanotech-based manufacturing will be in widespread use, radically altering the economy as all sorts of products can suddenly be produced for a fraction of their traditional-manufacture costs. The true cost of any product is now the amount it takes to download the design schematics.
• By the later part of this decade, virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality.
• The threat posed by genetically engineered pathogens permanently dissipates by the end of this decade as medical nanobots—infinitely more durable, intelligent and capable than any microorganism—become sufficiently advanced.
• The many variations of "Human Body 2.0" (as Kurzweil calls it) are incrementally accumulated into this and the following decade, with each organ and body system having its own course of refinement and development. It ultimately consists of a nanotechnological system of nourishment and circulation, obsolescing many internal organs, brain-extension and an improved skeleton.

2023

• 10¹⁶ calculations per second—roughly the equivalent of one human brain—will cost $1,000.

2025

• The most likely year for the debut of advanced nanotechnology.
• Some military UAVs and land vehicles will be 100% computer-controlled.

2030s

• Mind uploading becomes successful and perfected by the end of this decade as humans become software-based: living out on the Web, projecting bodies whenever they want or need (whether in virtual or real reality), and living indefinitely so long as they maintain their "mind file". Eventually, all human beings (including those with transbiological 2.0 or 3.0 bodies) will migrate to this postbiological state except for those who wish to remain unenhanced: the transbiological era giving way to the postbiological era.
• Nanomachines could be directly inserted into the brain and could interact with brain cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. As a result, truly full-immersion virtual reality could be generated without the need for any external equipment. Afferent nerve pathways could be blocked, totally cancelling out the "real" world and leaving the user with only the desired virtual experience.
• Brain nanobots could also elicit emotional responses from users.
• Using brain nanobots, recorded or real-time brain transmissions of a person's daily life known as "experience beamers" will be available for other people to remotely experience. This is very similar to how the characters in Being John Malkovich were able to enter the mind of Malkovich and see the world through his eyes.
• Recreational uses aside, nanomachines in peoples' brains will allow them to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to directly interface with computers, and to "telepathically" communicate with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks.
• The same nanotechnology should also allow people to alter the neural connections within their brains, changing the underlying basis for the person's intelligence, memories and personality.
• The many variations of "Human Body 3.0" are gradually implemented during this and the following decade; It most likely lacks a fixed, corporeal form and can alter its shape and external appearance at will via foglet-like nanotechnology.

2040s

• People spend most of their time in full-immersion virtual reality (Kurzweil has cited The Matrix as a good example of what the advanced virtual worlds will be like, without the dystopian twist).
• Foglets are in use.
• Nonbiological intelligence will be billions of times more capable than biological intelligence.

2045: The Singularity

• $1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. This would amount to machine intelligences quintillions of times more powerful than human intelligences, regardless in what shape or form. All of humanity would be far below bacteria in comparison to said AIs. By direct comparison it would most likely be like comparing an intelligence trillions of trillions of trillions of times greater than all humans combined with bacteria! And that's why its paramount, humans enhance themselves.
• The technological singularity occurs as artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest and most capable life forms on the Earth. Technological development is taken over by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what is going on. The machines enter into an infinite"runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new generation of A.I.s appearing faster and faster, and a faster time duration of producing the next generation at that. From this point onwards, technological advancement is explosive, under the control of the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted (hence the term "Singularity").
• The Singularity is an extremely disruptive, world-altering event that forever changes the course of human history. The extermination of humanity by violent machines is unlikely (though not impossible) because sharp distinctions between man and machine will no longer exist thanks to the existence of cybernetically enhanced humans and uploaded humans.

Post-2045: "Waking up" the Universe

• The physical bottom limit to how small computer transistors (or other equivalent, albeit more effective components, such as memristors integrated into Crossbar latches) can be shrunk is reached. From this moment onwards, computers can only be made more powerful if they are made larger in size.
• Because of this, A.I.s convert more and more of the Earth's matter into engineered, computational substrate capable of supporting more A.I.s. until the whole Earth is one, gigantic computer, except for a few nature reserves set aside on the planetary surface for those humans who decided to remain in their natural state. "MOSH's" (Mostly Original Substrate Human) who choose to remain purely organic would still possess virtual assistants that will act as their transcendent servants, living in the blurred real world ("foglet-reality") and being provided with environments and everything they could possibly need as they live out the rest of their normal lives unless they enhance themselves.
• At this point, the only possible way to increase the intelligence of the machines any farther is to begin converting all of the matter and energy in the universe into similar massive computers. A.I.s radiate outward from Earth, first into the Solar System and then out into interstellar space, then galaxies in all directions, utilizing starships that are Von Neumann probes with nanobot crews, breaking down whole planets, stars, moons, and meteoroids and reassembling them into computers. This, in effect, "wakes up" the universe as all the inanimate "dumb" matter (rocks, dust, gases, etc.) is converted into structured matter capable of supporting life (albeit synthetic life).
• Kurzweil predicts that machines might have the ability to make planet-sized computers by 2099, which underscores how enormously technology will advance after the Singularity.
• The process of "waking up" the universe could be completed well before the end of the 22nd century, provided humans are not limited by the speed of light.
• With the entire universe made into a giant, highly efficient supercomputer, AI and human hybrids (so integrated that, in truth it is a new category of "life") would have both unlimited supreme intelligence and physical control over the universe. . Yet it is unknown, for these predictions were made by a human, which in turn would be vastly inferior to machine minds. But if, for the sake of argument, what a post cosmic mind existence would be like, the machines would most likely, having say become centillions of centillions of centillions of times the intelligence than they were in the 2050s, will continue to exponentially saturate ever more universes, then multiverses, omniverses, macroverses, all verses, etc.. then continuing to ever higher unknown membranes of existence and totalities, without end, infinitely transcend god and omnipotence, go higher than omniscience, even saturate the incorporeal with their intelligences, etc.. and maybe even this is an understatement, for remember these machines and future posthumans would be so vastly above humans in intelligence and ability to conceptualize. Maybe even going above the infinite dimension or some infinite hierarchy, with all of imagination being at zero!