Scientist, author Michio Kaku predicts a future of digitization

Well-known author and scientist Michio Kaku spoke Monday night at Southeast Missouri State University’s Show Me Center to a crowd of over 1,000 people, speaking of what the next 20 years will hold.

In introducing Kaku, university president Carlos Vargas-Aburto said during the eclipse viewing at Southeast on Monday afternoon, over 25,000 pairs of safety glasses were distributed, 3,000 students from grades kindergarten through senior year were on campus, and over 500 volunteers from Southeast and the surrounding community helped pull off the event.

“It all goes to what I’ve always said,” Vargas said. “Astronomy, space, is a wonderful way of introducing children to science.”

Vargas said Southeast is working to improve its scientific activities and offerings, as well as promoting Southeast’s bachelor’s-degree programs in science and technology.

Kaku, known for his work attempting to complete Albert Einstein’s unified field theory that would unite areas of study, also is a prominent figure in predicting scientific trends.

Kaku has written three New York Times best-selling books and is a co-founder of string field theory.

He has appeared on numerous television programs and is a professor at New York University.

As he said, however, sometimes all those honors can backfire.

“New York Magazine had a contest, the 100 smartest people in New York,” Kaku said.

“I am proud to say I made the list; I’m officially one of New York’s smartest people. In all fairness, I have to admit, Madonna also made that same list.”

Kaku continued after the audience’s laughter subsided.

“Today, of course, you witnessed an historic event,” he said, referring to the eclipse, which he said was officially the single most unifying event in the history of the human race after accounting for social-media activity and television viewership of live feeds.

“But I want to talk about something different, the future, the next 20 years,” Kaku said.

Physicists have a lot to say about the future, Kaku said. Physicists invented the transistor, the laser and wrote the World Wide Web to keep track of subatomic particles, he said.

“And we physicists love to make predictions,” Kaku said.

In Kaku’s new book, “Physics of the Impossible,” he explores the possibilities of time machines, teleportation, telepathy and many other conveniences.

Mapping dreams already is possible, he said, and the technology will improve over the next 10 to 20 years.

Technological improvements come in waves, Kaku said.

The first wave in the 1800s saw physicists figuring out the laws of mechanics and steam power, leading to locomotives and other industrial equipment.

The second wave, electricity and automobiles, came about in the 1920s in America.

The third wave, high technology, began in the mid-20th century, Kaku said, and physicists worked out the transistor, lasers, the internet, satellites — all of them ways to create wealth.

“In the next 20 years, computer chips will cost a penny,” Kaku said.

“Bubblegum wrappers will cost more than computers. They’ll be everywhere and nowhere.

“Like electricity, it’s everywhere and nowhere. The word ‘electricity’ has disappeared. Nobody says ‘electricity’ anymore. The future of the computer is to disappear.”

Industries all will become digitized, Kaku said.

Where music and news media already have made the transition, in the future, medicine, transportation and every industry will be digitalized, Kaku said.

Even our memories, our thoughts and our emotions will be transmittable, recordable and ultimately archivable, to the extent people may achieve digital immortality — their descendants may visit a library and download their ancestors.

“Living forever, because everything known about you can be digitized,” Kaku said.

The future will look very different, Kaku said, with virtual reality and augmented reality having more of a presence, and those who embrace the changes stand to benefit the most.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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