The movie Matrix was making box office records a couple of years ago. In this story almost all of humanity is encased in capsules that meet their bodily needs while their minds live in a computer generated virtual reality. Kurzweil sees the possibility of this becoming a reality and not necessarily a bad development. It might be possible for a person like some future Einstein to have his thought patterns scanned and loaded into a computer. After the flesh and blood man dies his computerized alter-ego can continue to life forever in a virtual world where he can continue to think, do research and experience a fairly "normal" life. Or consider the person whose body is entirely paralyzed or whose brain is in a terminal coma.. Perhaps they could experience a "normal" and productive life, if they could function outside of their bodies in a virtual world.