Andrew Conrad's phrase is convert the paradigms of healthcare, but knowing Google and its geeky smart, underrated rebellious nature, I'd say the more apt verbs are upend, destroy (à la creative destruction), and replace. From reactive and episodic, to proactive to continuous is the aim for the Life Sciences business that Conrad heads. Simple, right?
The nano-particle platform works on the notion that these tiny, tiny particles play at the nexus between biology and engineering. Google wants to functionalize nano-particles, so these buggers do whatever Google wants them to do. The theory and the technology behind the medical application that Conrad describes may be dizzying, but the objective is simple enough: Gather data about what is going on inside our body, in such ways and to an extent never before done.
Ray Kurzweil is a technologist, inventor and futurist, and is on board Google as Director of Engineering. In a vision that he calls singularity, the time will come, by the end of the next decade, when technology capability will surpass human capability to keep up. Right now, the brain, for one, is far, far more sophisticated that any artificial intelligence device. But Kurzweil points out that scientists and developers are well under way in turning the tables and, in his words, in approaching singularity. When asked if Google was working on death, Conrad admits that Google is on it by eradicating disease and does view death as an enemy. He may simply be echoing what Kurzweil believes, namely, that immortality is a possibility.
By the way, Joanna Stern, personal tech columnist for The Wall Street Journal, isn't the right interviewer for this subject. Either she didn't prepare adequately, or she is simply way in over her head with the things Conrad talks about. Which he has done a good job of translating into mainly non-technical language.
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