December 22, 2015 12:39PM # Are We Entering The Age of Exponential Growth? By [Marian L. Tupy](https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy) --- SHARE In his 1999 book [The Age of Spiritual Machines](http://www.amazon.com/Age-Spiritual-Machines-Ray-Kurzweil/dp/0965086135/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450794035&sr=1-2&keywords=the+age+of+spiritual+machines), the famed futurist Ray Kurzweil proposed “The Law of Accelerating Returns.” According to Kurzweil’s [law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_change), “the rate of change in a wide variety of evolutionary systems (including but not limited to the growth of technologies) tends to increase exponentially.” I mention Kurzweil’s observation, because it is sure beginning to feel like we are entering an age of colossal and rapid change. Consider the following: According to The [Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12061787/Intelligence-genes-discovered-by-scientists.html), “Genes which make people intelligent have been discovered \[by researchers at the Imperial College London\] and scientists believe they could be manipulated to boost brain power.” This could usher in an era of super-smart humans and accelerate the already fast process of scientific discovery. Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has [successfully](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/22/welcome-back-baby-elon-musk-celebrates-spacex-rocket-launch-and-landing) “blasted off from Cape Canaveral, delivered communications satellites to orbit before its main-stage booster returned to a landing pad.” Put differently, space flight has just become much cheaper since main-stage booster rockets, which were previously non-reusable, are also very expensive. The CEO of Merck has [announced](http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/12/21/merck-ceo-on-major-breakthrough-in-lung-cancer-treatment/) a major breakthrough in the fight against lung cancer. Keytruda “is a new category of drugs that stimulates the body’s immune system.” “Using Keytruda,” Kenneth Frazier said, “will extend \[the life of lung cancer sufferers\] … by approximately 13 months on average. We know that it will reduce the risk of death by 30–40 percent for people who had failed on standard chemo-therapy.” Also, there has been massive progress in the development of “[edible electronics](http://www.techrepublic.com/article/humans-2-0-how-the-robot-revolution-is-going-to-change-how-we-see-feel-and-talk/).” New technology developed by Bristol Robotics Laboratory “will allow the doctor to feel inside your body without making a single incision, effectively taking the tips of the doctor’s fingers and transplant them onto the exterior of the \[edible\] robotic pill. When the robot presses against the interior of the intestinal tract, the doctor will feel the sensation as if her own fingers were pressing the flesh.” ##### Related Tags [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).