# Brain-to-cloud links may not need molecular nanomachines

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/brain-to-cloud-links-may-not-need-molecular-nanomachines/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Ray Kurzweil](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-kurzweil/) · Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, AI researcher and futurist.
- Host: [Peter Diamandis](https://realalpha.app/people/peter-diamandis/) · Founder & executive chairman, XPRIZE Foundation · Co-founded Singularity University and founded Zero-G; co-wrote the books Abundance and Bold.
- Show: Moonshots
- Episode: [The Man Who Predicted AGI Decades Ago w/ Ray Kurzweil | EP #125](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/), Oct 24, 2024
- Moment: 36:25 to 39:59 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/brain-to-cloud-links-may-not-need-molecular-nanomachines/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2185

## Quote

> “We **don't actually need** that type of capability to do what I'm saying will happen in the 2030s.”
> — [Ray Kurzweil](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-kurzweil/) at [36:44](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2204) · Moonshots

## Takeaways

1. He separates brain-to-cloud interfaces from atom-by-atom assemblers.
2. He expects neocortex-to-cloud communication in the 2030s.
3. He predicts acquired knowledge could feel internally generated.

## About this segment

Ray Kurzweil says brain-to-cloud links in the 2030s need access to the neocortex, not Drexler-style assemblers. He predicts outside knowledge could feel like your own thoughts.

From “The Man Who Predicted AGI Decades Ago w/ Ray Kurzweil | EP #125”, Oct 24, 2024. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[36:30](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2190) He described what nanotechnology is. And I am super curious, where are we today in nanotech? Do you know of any companies that are making diligent progress in that area? I do. I mean, some of them are confidential. We don't actually need that type of capability to do what I'm saying will happen in the 2030s. It's basically the ability to communicate from our neocortex outside of our body, and then we'll go to a cloud.

[37:11](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2231) And that does not actually require Drexlerian nanotechnology. Eric spoke about assemblers, right, which are nanomachines that can rearrange individual atoms. Right, they can create anything. Yeah. And we've had... had the description of computers that are at that level. So literally, a computer this size would have the intelligence of all human beings, you know, like 10 billion human beings together.

[37:48](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2268) But we don't need that for the 2030s. But we will be able to do what I'm saying, which is basically just have our neocortex communicate to the cloud. And it doesn't have to be the entire neocortex. The neocortex is organized like a funnel. And as you go up the funnel, concepts become more complex. And you really only need to interact with the last part of the neocortex uh that we can do in the 2030s um and so if you're thinking about something thoughts will come to you just like it comes to you from from your own brain and you won't actually be able to tell the difference between things coming from your own brain and things coming from the neocortex it'll be the same so if i want to understand schrodinger's equation and how it applies to, you know, certain molecules on the surface of a cell.

[38:59](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2339) I will just understand it without knowing how. Yes, and computers can do that today, and you'll be able to do that as well. I'm going back to MIT and becoming a physics major. It's going to be so much easier. physics in every other field but I mean you can do the large language model today you can look up anything in physics or humanities or psychology psychiatry so on and you'll be able to get a very decent description of it but you have to read it takes a few minutes as opposed to just instantly knowing it I mean that's really the difference knowing it instantly like it was in your own brain.

[39:52](https://realalpha.app/v/xqS5PDYbTsE/?t=2392) Real quick, I've been getting the most unusual compliments lately on my skin.