Kurzweil bet the 2020s on carbon nanotubes. In mid-2024, Nantero quietly shut down. In Q4 2025, TSMC’s silicon nanosheet transistors entered volume production. The scoreboard is in.
Kurzweil predicted molecular computing as the sixth paradigm. What arrived was 3D-stacked silicon, reversible logic startups, and an AI power crisis nobody saw coming.