full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Ray Kurzweil: The accelerating power of technology
Unscramble the Blue Letters
We were evolved in an era where it wasn't in the interests of people at the age of most people at this conference, like myself, to live much longer, because we were using up the precious resources which were better depyleod towards the crielhdn and those caring for them. So, life — long lipasenfs — like, that is to say, much more than 30 — weren't selected for, but we are learning to actually manipulate and change these software programs through the biotechnology revolution. For example, we can inhibit genes now with RNA irfnreeecnte. There are exciting new fmros of gene therapy that overcome the problem of placing the genetic material in the right pacle on the coomrhosme. There's actually a — for the first time now, something going to human trials, that actually cures prnmaluoy hypertension — a fatal disease — using gene therapy. So we'll have not just designer bebais, but dgeniser baby boomers. And this technology is also accelerating. It cost 10 dollars per base pair in 1990, then a penny in 2000. It's now under a 10th of a cent. The amount of genetic data — basically this swohs that smooth exponential growth doubled every year, enabling the genome pejcrot to be completed.
Open Cloze
We were evolved in an era where it wasn't in the interests of people at the age of most people at this conference, like myself, to live much longer, because we were using up the precious resources which were better ________ towards the ________ and those caring for them. So, life — long _________ — like, that is to say, much more than 30 — weren't selected for, but we are learning to actually manipulate and change these software programs through the biotechnology revolution. For example, we can inhibit genes now with RNA ____________. There are exciting new _____ of gene therapy that overcome the problem of placing the genetic material in the right _____ on the __________. There's actually a — for the first time now, something going to human trials, that actually cures _________ hypertension — a fatal disease — using gene therapy. So we'll have not just designer ______, but ________ baby boomers. And this technology is also accelerating. It cost 10 dollars per base pair in 1990, then a penny in 2000. It's now under a 10th of a cent. The amount of genetic data — basically this _____ that smooth exponential growth doubled every year, enabling the genome _______ to be completed.
Solution
- babies
- place
- pulmonary
- interference
- deployed
- shows
- chromosome
- children
- designer
- forms
- lifespans
- project
Original Text
We were evolved in an era where it wasn't in the interests of people at the age of most people at this conference, like myself, to live much longer, because we were using up the precious resources which were better deployed towards the children and those caring for them. So, life — long lifespans — like, that is to say, much more than 30 — weren't selected for, but we are learning to actually manipulate and change these software programs through the biotechnology revolution. For example, we can inhibit genes now with RNA interference. There are exciting new forms of gene therapy that overcome the problem of placing the genetic material in the right place on the chromosome. There's actually a — for the first time now, something going to human trials, that actually cures pulmonary hypertension — a fatal disease — using gene therapy. So we'll have not just designer babies, but designer baby boomers. And this technology is also accelerating. It cost 10 dollars per base pair in 1990, then a penny in 2000. It's now under a 10th of a cent. The amount of genetic data — basically this shows that smooth exponential growth doubled every year, enabling the genome project to be completed.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| exponential growth |
11 |
| evolutionary process |
5 |
| price performance |
3 |
| human intelligence |
3 |
| solar panels |
2 |
| fuel cells |
2 |
| base pair |
2 |
| smooth exponential |
2 |
| genome project |
2 |
| cell phones |
2 |
| body plans |
2 |
| biological evolution |
2 |
| technological evolution |
2 |
| straight line |
2 |
| cell phone |
2 |
| logarithmic graph |
2 |
| exponential process |
2 |
| percent deflation |
2 |
| information technology |
2 |
| software programs |
2 |
| health benefits |
2 |
| gene therapy |
2 |
| growing exponentially |
2 |
| cures type |
2 |
| blood cell |
2 |
| red blood |
2 |
| human auditory |
2 |
| human brain |
2 |
Important Words
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- gene
- genes
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- genome
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- human
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- inhibit
- interests
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- learning
- life
- lifespans
- live
- long
- longer
- manipulate
- material
- overcome
- pair
- penny
- people
- place
- placing
- precious
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- programs
- project
- pulmonary
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- rna
- selected
- shows
- smooth
- software
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- time
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- year