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| 1. _______ Medical scientists are already putting computer chips directly into the brain to help people with Parkinson's disease, but in what other ways might computer technology be able to help us? Ray Kurzweil is the author of the successful book The Age of Intelligent Machines and is one of the world's best computer research scientists. He is researching the possibilities. 2. _______ Kurzweil gets computers to recognize voices. An example of this is Ramona, the virtual hostess of Kurzweil's homepage, who is programmed to understand what you say. Visitors to the site can have their own conversations with her, and Ramona also dances and sings. 3._______ Kurzweil uses this technology to help people with physical disabilities. One of his ideas is a "seeing machine". This will be "like a friend that could describe what is going on in the visible world", he explains. Blind people will use a visual sensor which will probably be built into a pair of sunglasses. This sensor will describe to the people everything it sees. 4._______ Another idea, which is likely to help deaf people, is the "listening machine". This invention will recognize millions of words and understand any speaker. This listening machine will also be able to translate into other languages, so even people without hearing problems are likely to be interested in using it. 5._______ But it is not just about helping people with disabilities. Looking further into the future, Kurzweil sees a time when we will be able to download our entire consciousness onto a computer. This technology probably won't be ready for at least 50 years, but when it arrives, it means our minds will be able to live forever. |