Microsoft Word Kurzweil, Ray The Singularity Is Near doc

Wormholes.
There are two exploratory conjectures that suggest ways to circumvent the apparent limitation of the 
speed of light. The first is to use wormholes—folds of the universe in dimensions beyond the three visible ones. This 
does not really involve traveling at speeds faster than the speed of light but merely means that the topology of the 
universe is not the simple three-dimensional space that naive physics implies. However, if wormholes or folds in the 
universe are ubiquitous, perhaps these shortcuts would allow us to get everywhere quickly. Or perhaps we can even 
engineer them. 
In 1935 Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen formulated "Einstein-Rosen" bridges as a way of describing 
electrons and other particles in terms of tiny space-time tunnels.
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In 1955 physicist John Wheeler described these 
tunnels as "wormholes," introducing the term for the first time.
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His analysis of wormholes showed them to be fully 
consistent with the theory of general relativity, which describes space as essentially curved in another dimension. 
In 1988 California Institute of Technology physicists Michael Morris, Kip Thorne, and Uri Yurtsever explained in 
some detail how such wormholes could be engineered.
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Responding to a question from Carl Sagan they described the 
energy requirements to keep wormholes of varying sizes open. They also pointed out that based on quantum 
fluctuation, so-called empty space is continually generating tiny wormholes the size of subatomic particles. By adding 
energy and following other requirements of both quantum physics and general relativity (two fields that have been 
notoriously difficult to unify), these wormholes could be expanded to allow objects larger than subatomic particles to 
travel through them. Sending humans through them would not be impossible but extremely difficult. However, as I 
pointed out above, we really only need to send nanobots plus information, which could pass through wormholes 
measured in microns rather than meters. 
Thorne and his Ph.D. students Morris and Yurtsever also described a method consistent with general relativity and 
quantum mechanics that could establish wormholes between the Earth and faraway locations. Their proposed 
technique involves expanding a spontaneously generated, subatomic-size wormhole to a larger size by adding energy, 
then stabilizing it using superconducting spheres in the two connected "wormhole mouths." After the wormhole is 
expanded and stabilized, one of its mouths (entrances) is transported to another location, while keeping its connection 
to the other entrance, which remains on Earth. 
Thorne offered the example of moving the remote entrance via a small rocket ship to the star Vega, which is 
twenty-five light-years away. By traveling at very close to the speed of light, the journey, as measured by clocks on the 
ship, would be relatively brief. For example, if the ship traveled at 99.995 percent of the speed of light, the clocks on 
the ship would move ahead by only three months. Although the time for the voyage, as measured on Earth, would be 
around twenty-five years, the stretched wormhole would maintain the direct link between the locations as well as the 
points in time of the two locations. Thus, even as experienced on Earth, it would take only three months to establish 
the link between Earth and Vega, because the two ends of the wormhole would maintain their time relationship. 
Suitable engineering improvements could allow such links to be established anywhere in the universe. By traveling 

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arbitrarily close to the speed of light, the time required to establish a link—for both communications and 
transportation—to other locations in the universe, even those millions of billions of light years away, could be 
relatively brief. 
Matt Visser of Washington University in St. Louis has suggested refinements to the Morris-Thorne-Yurtsever 
concept that provide a more stable environment, which might even allow humans to travel through wormholes.
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In my 
view, however, this is unnecessary. By the time engineering projects of this scale might be feasible, human 
intelligence will long since have been dominated by its nonbiological component. Sending molecular-scale self-
replicating devices along with software will be sufficient and much easier. Anders Sandberg estimates that a one-
nanometer wormhole could transmit a formidable 10
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bits per second.
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Physicist David Hochberg and Vanderbilt University's Thomas Kephart point out that shortly after the Big Bang, 
gravity was strong enough to have provided the energy required to spontaneously create massive numbers of self-
stabilizing wormholes.
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A significant portion of these wormholes is likely to still be around and may be pervasive, 
providing a vast network of corridors that reach far and wide throughout the universe. It might be easier to discover 
and use these natural wormholes than to create new ones.