Computers 'to match man by 2029'

BEFORE READING 

1. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

1.	leading	a.	speed
2	predicted	b.	point out
3.	within	c.	future
4.	upcoming	d.	developer
5.	extension	e.	top
6.	identify	f.	specialists
7.	experts	g.	forecast
8.	pioneer	h.	inside
9.	pace	i.	sci-fi
10.	science fiction	j.	addition

A leading US scientist has predicted that computers will be as intelligent as humans by 2029. Futurologist Dr Ray Kurzweil told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that in the near future, machine intelligence will overtake the power of the human brain. He said that within two decades computers will be able to think quicker than humans. Dr Kurzweil painted a picture of us having tiny robots called nanobots implanted in our brain to boost our intelligence and health. He told reporters that these microscopic nanobots would work with our brains to make us think faster and give us more powerful memories. Kurzweil explained that we are already “a human machine civilization” and that the upcoming technology “will be a further extension of that."


Dr Kurzweil was one of 18 top intellectuals asked by the US National Academy of Engineering to identify our greatest technological challenges. Other experts included Google founder Larry Page and the human genome pioneer Dr Craig Venter. Kurzweil has a very impressive background in science and innovation. He was an innovator in various fields of computing, including the technology behind CDs. He also pioneered automatic speech recognition by machines. He predicts the pace of new inventions will increase greatly from now, saying: "…the next half century will see 32 times more technical progress than the past half century." This means scenes from science fiction movies, like Blade Runner, The Terminator and I Robot, will become more and more a part of our everyday lives.

COMPREHENSION 

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Computers will match men and women in perfect marriages.	T / F
b.	Machines will be more intelligent than humans within two decades.	T / F
c.	A leading scientist likes painting pictures using very small robots.	T / F
d.	The scientist suggested that machines inside us is natural progress.	T / F
e.	A US organization asked scientists for 18 21st-Century challenges.	T / F
f.	The scientist in the article has no background in computing.	T / F
g.	Technology developments will increase by 50 times in 32 years.	T / F
h.	Things we see in sci-fi movies will become commonplace in reality.	T / F