If you want to see into the future, says inventor, futurist, and author Ray Kurzweil, keep your eye on the development of videogames.
Delivering the keynote address on the second day of the Game Developers' Conference, Kurzweil discussed that the world of technology was changing so drastically and so rapidly that it was difficult to predict what might happen just a few years from now.
Six or seven years ago, he said, people didn't use search engines. Just three or four years ago, people didn't use blogs or podcasts. The world is changing very dramatically very quickly, but videogames might give us a hint of what's to come.
"Games are the harbinger of everything," said Kurzweil.
Kurzweil began his address by commenting that the name "game" is unfortunate, because it doesn't give either credit that games are due. "It's as though they're not real," he said, but people are creating real romance and real business, using the virtual world of Second Life as an example.
"Games are really the cutting edge of what's happening," said Kurzweil, and given the inevitable progression of technology, "ultimately they're going to be competitive with real reality."
By examining how technology has changed over just the past 30 years, Kurzweil predicted that three dimensional computer chips and nanotechnology might not be the stuff of science fiction but of fact in just a few years.
We may even have the ability to accurately represent the human brain or produce convincing human language -- dialog -- on the fly. The implications and potential for the advancement of games from such technological leaps are exciting to ponder.
The problem, says Kurzweil, is that growth in technology is exponential and that people tend to think linearly. That narrow way of viewing the world is what prevents us from being able to see advancements like the Internet coming, despite the fact that the signs are clearly there.
Advancements in technology aren't the only reason that Kurzweil predicts the development of games will soon be taking large leaps forward. The "tools of creativity have been democratized," and you can now create a game with $1000 and a laptop. The tools of production will also soon be democratized, he predicted.
Even if that weren't the case, game development would still be advancing at an exponential clip as technology changes, says Kurzweil, because of its importance in our society.
"Play is how we principally learn and principally create," said Kurzweil.
