The World in 2030

82 The World in 2030
the same human-level tasks a thousand times as fast
as we. It could, for example:
– read an average book in one second with full comprehension;
– take a college course and do all the homework and
research in ten minutes;
– write a book, again with ample research, in two or
three hours;
– produce the equivalent of a human’s lifetime intellectual
output, complete with all the learning,
growth, and experience involved, in a couple of
weeks. 159
Perhaps the last word on super-intelligent machines should
go to Irving John Good 160 (one of the British World War II
cryptographers who worked alongside Alan Turing), author
of the 1965 paper, ‘Speculations Concerning the First
Ultraintelligent Machine’:
Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention
that man need ever make. 161
Nanotechnology
The term ‘nanotechnology’ 162 is simple to define (the control
of matter on a scale smaller than 1 micrometer, normally
between 1-100 nanometers) but the types of science and
technology being developed at this sub-microscopic level
vary greatly.