Kurzweil predicts we'll solve that conundrum by putting the displays into our glasses.

"There'll be images right to our retinas. This will create very high-resolution virtual displays that can hover in the air. It will measure head movement -- so as you move the image won't move, it will be stationary. And it will also be able to completely overtake your visual field of view in 3 dimensions -- creating full immersion visual, auditory virtual reality. And we'll be spending quite a lot of time in virtual reality (VR) -- environments like Second Life are a crude harbinger of what is to come."

And these new VR environments won't be all play. Second Life, he notes, already has a real economy and members do real business transactions and have real romance.

Augmented reality

As VR environments -- offering full immersion experiences -- start "competing with reality", Kurzweil says IT will drive another related phenomenon-- augmented reality.

Augmented reality (AR), of course, isn't a very new concept. Ronald Azuma defined an AR system as one that:

• Combines real and virtual
• Is interactive in real-time
• Is registered in 3D

Kurzweil says some of the applications of AR a new breed of computers that watch what you watch, listen to what you are saying -- and that proactively offer you relevant information.

"Search engines won't wait to be asked. If you look at someone, little pop ups will occur in your visual field reminding you who that is, giving you information about them, reminding you it's their birthday next Tuesday. If you look at buildings it will give you information about them, and help you walk around. If it hears you stumbling over some information, it will just pop up without you having to ask....like a helpful assistant."

With advances in VR and AR technology, Kurzweil says, "we'll be living in the Web. It won't just be something we connect to with rectangular objects."

In this constantly augmented reality, he says, intelligent computation will be every present, helping us every step of the way.

For instance, he visualizes advertisements using a new technology involving two ultrasonic beams intersecting at a specific point and delivering a localized audio message that only a specific person can hear --demonstrated in the movie Minority Report.

Tabletop metamorphosis

Tabletop devices that can actually create three-dimensional objects is one Kurzweil's more controversial predictions.

The futurist within the next two decades we would be able to take an information file, and "turn it

into any three-dimensional object such as a module for a house, a solar panel, a toaster, or even the toast, or a blouse."

These objects, he says, would be created basically by reorganizing matter and energy from very basic input materials, which will be recycled to create physical products. "There are a number of road maps to get there, and I believe we'll see those kinds of devices within 20 years."