As a true Futurist , Ray Kurzweil really reaches out to the future of knowledge and AI. His predictions that computers will increasingly take over routine human functions ends up where computers will outstrip humans by 2030. It sounds a bit daunting but fear not computers will be made safe until one named HAL comes along sometime later.

His chart showing how the rate of change is accellerating is right on target. Unfortunately global warming could fall into that prediction. As human knowledge doubles every few years now we can expect some really fantastic things to happen. Be ready for some real, excitement ahead. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Very interesting. Author has thought a lot about the topic -- not just surface-level hype that is so common nowadays. But the text drags in some chapters. I'd like to see around 100 of the 500 pages cut out.

Brilliant is the best word to describe this work. Kurzweil has brought the future into something of a focus with this amazing look into the future. What really makes this work is that you can't 'see' exactly what the future will be even though he brings you further along than you have been. We can't see past the singularity - it will be something amazing - but we cannot truly conceive of what will be.
This will change the way you view our world and the future of our race.

In my opinion, this is an exceptional book. I was astonished to read some of the criticisms it has received on amazon.com. I truly could not put this book down. The depth of the subjects covered is great. For anyone who is interested in futurism, this should be on your bookshelf.

First of all, the author is an extremely accomplished man. Chances are you use one of his inventions everyday. Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, received thirteen--yes, thirteen--honorary doctorates, the National Medal of Technology, the Lemelson MIT Prize (the world's largest award for innovation), and awards from three US Presidents. This makes me more than comfortable when reading this book.

I very much enjoy books of this nature, but have never encountered a book such as this; with every claim and prediction, Kurzweil provides more than ample evidence to support himself. Reading this book was an intellectual revolution.

Some of the criticisms I read about this book on amazon.com stated that the book lacked emotion and was quite dry. I couldn't disagree more. I find it impossible to be without emotion when discussing the things Kurzweil touches on and noticed no apathy in his writing. At times, his writing was quite humorous; the dialogue of a fictional character named Molly with various other characters at the end of every chapter was very entertaining.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It will truly change your outlook on the human civilization and its future. I plan to read it again and again.

Excellent description of how the universe seems to be progressing from the simpler to the more complex.

Perhaps, also a metaphor of how what age we live in changes our perspective of how we view the evolution of the universe and the intelligence that is spawned.

In the old industrial era, it was thought that civilization would increase it's usage of energy, building Dyson spheres.

In the new information age, it seems that the vision is about a "Singularity Wave" speeding out to convert as much of the matter in the universe into the most efficient materials to process exponentially increasing information and intelligence.

I believe the basics are, as best as I can tell, very good and I enthusiastically embrace his humanistic (and post or trans humanistic) philosophy.

Only a couple of things which I might differ on, and that would be..

1. Not much mention of quantum computing. That would represent the absolute manifestation of Richard Feynman's "Plenty of Room at the Bottom", and in the case of quantum computing, the bottom of a potentially unlimited, 5Th dimensional matrix of alternate world-lines to employ. Much better than dealing with the delays of linking together multi-billion light year networks.

2. Because of the above, and also the "s" curve of population growth in post agricultural/industrial/hyper-industrial-info civilization, there may well be a trillion or so "Singularity" worlds out there, many within a few hundred light years from Earth.

These worlds may send small probes, perhaps with super intelligent entities to explore, but wouldn't need any more resources than exist in their native solar system.

Futurism is an imperfect art, and many of Kurzweil's prognostications will probably unfold in different ways from what is expected, but I fully embrace a vision of this new world unfolding to the benefit of conscious life on Earth.

Futurists are seductive and so are their fantastical predictions, even when one has absolutely no idea exactly how to evaluate the soundness of their claims. Kurzweil tries with all his might to answer this criticism of the genre but fails nonetheless, offering mound upon mound of at best incomplete graphs that bury his theses behind the madness of immeasurable technological erudition, so (alas) the reader is probably left to do one of two things: ignorantly object or ignorantly serve. It's good fun, much like a fireside game of "what if" at summer camp, and Bill Gates's official endorsement makes it feel populist enough to recommend to your inquisitive friends.

The book presents an interesting premise that humans will evolve from purely biological to biological/technological and ultimately to technological beings. Whether or not Kurzweil has gotten the time frame right is the question. If he is right, humans are only 20 to 30 years from this singularity. A most thought provoking read.

It's a potentially important book as many other reviewers have pointed out but his stream of consciousness writing style gets aggravating. If you can skim, you win. If you read, you bleed. There aren't many things he says fewer than four times. But some of those things have come true, some will and some of the amazing ones may. He has an impressive track record. Now if he'd just add discipline to his writing.

Over 600 pages with 100 pages of "notes"!. Lots of rambling commentary. Not worth the money. Watch Nova.

A well-written and optimistic view of humanity's future. If even 1/100th of what Ray Kurzweil predicts comes occurs (which seems likely given his record) - then we are in for a very exciting century indeed.

Ray Kurzweil is an exceedingly intelligent and perceptive individual. His scientific insight into the future is fascinating and frightening. I am listing this as a "must read" to all of my top students.

This is not for the layman as a whole, but there are some interesting concepts presented. Hard to get through, but certainly brilliant.

I agree with some of the other reviewers... get an editor. If the author had one, he should get a new one. Very thought-provoking ideas are buried in highly repetitive paragraphs and chapters. I can only assume that most of the readers of this book don't need to read things twenty times before they take hold. I feel like the singularity is approaching, but we just collectively pushed it back a little bit by plodding through this bloated volume.

For anyone interested in futurism and science fiction (with a bit more science) this book would be a thrilling read; it certainly makes for some interesting "what if" discussions across the dinner table. I'm sure any reasonable person would view a lot of Kurzweil's projections as extreme and speculative, but perhaps criticizing an author for being speculative in a field (futurism) that essentially calls upon people to speculate may be a bit misguided.

The only serious criticism that I have for Kurzweil is that his time line seems HIGHLY unlikely. Like many futurists, he mostly bypasses any discussion of the economics of these discoveries, but rather treats progress as if it were 'only' a matter of figuring out solutions to problems. His time projections might make more sense if researchers had bottomless bank accounts, but it seems more reasonable that his time line be extended at least 3 or 4 times over to account for the fact that finding ways to establish markets that will fund this enormous amount of research will not be an easy task. I'm sure he'd say that I'm stuck in the "linear" model of human progress, but even with granting the coming of the singularity and his law of exponentially growing returns I can't see his expectations coming about so soon. Either way this book is futurism at its finest and should be read by anyone who is curious about what changes humanity could (COULD) face in the coming decades.

hard to get through some of the sections. but worth it in the end.

hard to get through some of the sections. but worth it in the end.

Once you get over Ray Kurzweil's annoying certainty about where things are heading, you'll find a great overview of -- both existing and yet to be developed -- technologies that might shape our future. For an aspiring futurologist, the list of references alone is no doubt worth the price of the book.

Once you get over Ray Kurzweil's annoying certainty about where things are heading, you'll find a great overview of -- both existing and yet to be developed -- technologies that might shape our future. For an aspiring futurologist, the list of references alone is no doubt worth the price of the book.

Without exaggeration The Singularity is Near will likely become the preeminent futurist technology book of the 21st century. Whether Kurzweil's predictions come to pass or not, I simply cannot imagine any subsequent tome topping this one--in depth of detail, in comprehensiveness, in (trans)humanitarianism, or in elegant flow of logic. And tome it is: note I felt obligated to state in the page count that the book has 100 pages of discursive notes... followed by a 50 page index!

I expect one day, just as we talk about the Christian era in terms of BC and AD, we'll have another basis for gauging the centuries: BK and AK. Kurzweil does a lot of heavy lifting, systematically demonstrating the realities of the new technology, even some current concerns about environment and energy. We have reason to be optimistic.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2007

really not impressed, it's a collection of items and examples that don't necessarily fit together.
The style seems somehow childish...

I personally am disapointed...

This is one the the favorite books I have ever read. It is not an easy read for a non-scientist, but absolutely rewarding. It is surprisingly accessible, despite the technical and intellectual scope. The logical and insightful nature of Kurzweil's arguments make it a compelling and inspirational read. The book has had a huge impact on my thinking and introduced me to the whole subject of futurism. It is affecting my investment and career decisions. There were numerous mind-bending, mind-expanding moments during reading this as the gravity of the concepts sank in. Garreau's book, Radical Evolution, is a great follow-up read, comparing and contrasting Kurzweil's optimism with the pessimism of others. It is a joy and luxury to be exposed to the visions such "big thinkers".

I read this book with such optimism for our future. I only hope to live long enough to see some of the exciting events in our future on this planet. Just when you think you have seen it all, you "ain't seen nutt'n yet". Come on world let's work together and solves some of the mysteries that are tearing us apart.

the future is going to be wild.

ray kurzweil is the leading guru of the not so far off world where key technologies merge to allow us to turn ourselves into non biological humans.

no crack pot he. when kurzweil presented his thesis at MIT the arguments centered on the when, not the if of kurzweils predictions

Although the reading is tedious for someone who is not that scientifically or computer oriented, the concepts and ideas the book presents are fascinating and a bit scary!

At some point I hope that people will stop paying attention to Paris Hilton and read this book. Our species is at a crossroads and we have some very important decisions to make in the next few decades. This book more than any other will prepare us to make the right choices. Read it now, or be devoured by a swarm of nanobots in 2029 when Skynet takes over.

While the author is obviously technically brilliant he ventures into areas about which he appears to know very little. His frequent reference to evoloutionary principles as though they ensure linear progression, is a massive misunderstanding of the concept. He makes one reference to the leader in evolutionary knoweledge over the past three decaseds viz, Stephen Jay Gould and then inaccurately.

It is difficult to believe that he is very conversant with the writings of Jay Gould to whom greater deference ought to have been given when entering into the field of evolution.

In the end I was left with the impression that the book was a cross between science fiction and an unsatisfactory dependency upon his reputation rather than on principles of futurism which suggest (as is the case with mutations in evolution) that it is the unexpected that is likely to call the shots.

Another aspect of the book that concerned me was the assumption that homo sapiens needs to achieve artificial intelligence and that this development will somehow resolve the cultural, religious, environmental and philosophical problems confronting society

Louis A Coutts

This book is both 'hugely insightful' and a 'tough slog'. Reading it is not for the faint of heart or for anyone not comfortable with today's technology. If you are interested in the opinions and view of the future of one of the tech world's brightest lights, then go for it.

This book will shake you to your very foundations. Only a few decades and non - biological intelligence with surpass human intelligence. The arguements are clear and concise.

I love Ray Kurzweil. You know, not in that Biblical way, nor even in that neo-Platonic Metrosexual way. I love Ray Kurzweil because he is an eternal optimist, and because a lot of his ideas are just freakin' cool. (Of course, some of his ideas also seem very naive and rather dangerous, too. Cf "Why I love Ray Kurzweil.") Whether he is right or wrong in his predictions, at least he's someone who's upbeat about the future of humanity. What with Global Warming, Peak Oil, al Kaeda, the Social Security crisis, and Gulf hurricanes, sometimes you need someone telling you that not only is going to be all right, but that if we make it to 2045, we all will live forever, too, in an uber-society of benevolent immortals! (I'm not kidding. That's what Ray Kurzweil predicts.)

That is the main point of this book: that after the Technological Singularity not only will we all live forever, but our world will have changed so much along with that that we simply are UNABLE to predict what the world will be like after that date. However, in order to get there, it will involve computers, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology and genetic manipulations.

The problem with this book is that Kurzweil gives this stunning prediction--the MAIN POINT of the book--- somewhere roundabouts page 127, at the end of a paragraph, in the middle of a chapter, in an almost off-handed way.

In short, there is a lot of really fascinating stuff here, but it is tossed together in such a haphazard way, and with such verbose prose, and with so many tangents, that it is hard to keep focus on what is really essential.

One suggestion I might have--- and which would have helped me TREMENDOUSLY--- would have been a TIMELINE of major events that he predicts will happen. You see, throughout the book, tossed here and there, are statements like "By the end of the 2020s, a computer will have passed the Turing Test." Well, that's nice. But for me, the reason I read these types of books is that I want to know what the future will bring! But after I read this book, I got the feeling that a lot of cool stuff is going to happen, but I wasn't exactly sure when. There was no way I could go and see a summary of these predictions.

I would have like a 10 page timeline of major future events. You know, like "2019- the first implantable brain-computer interface. 2020- Computer intelligence reaches the level of a human in a mainframe computer. 2021- We finally get the flying cars!" and so on. (By the way, he doesn't actually talk about flying cars. But I STILL want to know when I get my flying car!)

I waited many years for this book after I read his last "The Age of Spiritual Machines" (which is amazing.) I must count myself among the slightly disappointed. The book's ideas are amazing and really important, but it's often hard to tell that because they are tossed haphazardly together in an often long-winded jumble.

The book would have been 5 stars for me had it been better organized. Or, if it had been organized like "Spiritual Machines" which looked at the future decade by decade. A nice timeline alone would have knocked it up to 4 stars.

Even though I'm only giving it three stars, I STILL think everyone should read it! The ideas presented are just THAT important. But expect the experience to be a little more like eating broccoli than a bowl of cherries: sure, both of them are good for you, but it often takes some effort to eat the former.

This is a strange and powerful tome. Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil makes predictions that are sweeping in their implications and bold in their specificity. In fact, some readers may think they sound more like science fiction than science. He discusses developing artificial intelligence, downloading consciousness, redesigning the body using nanotechnology and other seemingly improbable developments. Then, he goes out on a limb to predict how and when these technological advances will all intersect - a historical moment called the "singularity." At that point, he says, if humans have used technology properly, they will become godlike, solving all their problems. Kurzweil devotes nearly 80 pages to articulating and responding to the criticisms of skeptics. However, even if you reject most of Kurzweil's ideas, you can still benefit from reading his book. It is thoroughly researched, with roughly 100 pages of notes and references, and conceptually challenging. Kurzweil works hard to make it lively and accessible, providing graphs, quotations, sidebars and imaginary debates among spokespersons for various points of view. The result can become overwhelming, but it is always thought-provoking. We recommend this book to executives who are seriously interested in planning for the future, and to curious minds everywhere.

The technological singularity is a future event where humanity will get a lot of power from scientific and technological breakthroughs. This exaggerate amount of power will make us better and will give us a better comprehension of who we are. The trend of technological growing is exponential-like.

The predictions are based on the law of accelerating returns. That is, once we develop new technologies, these technologies will serve to develop new and better technologies, and so on. According to many scientists and futurists, technological singularity is supposed to arrive on 2050.

Will humanity control and benefit from the power that science and technology will give us or this power will control us or maybe destroy everything? That is a hot ethical debate to analyze. There are so many benefits and dangerous risks too. Singularity has many controversial ethical connotations that will be analyzed here.

Genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) are the three intertwined sciences that will lead us to the singularity. Each year, billions of dollars are invested in GNR. Many advances are planned to come in 5, 10, 20, and 40 years. Scientists are now making the future.

Some computer scientists have calculated that the maximum computational power (MCP) of a piece of matter with mass M (in kilograms) is: MCP=4.75 x 1050 x M [cps] (in calculations per second). The coefficient of this formula is pi times the speed of light squared (a very large number) divided by the Planck's constant (a very little number).

Some neuroscientists have conservatively calculated that the human brain capacity is 1019 [cps]. The adult mass of the human brain is about 1.35 Kg. So, the maximum computational power for a piece of matter with the same mass of a human brain is 6.41 x 1050 [cps]. It can be inferred that this piece of matter could be 6.41 x 1031 times more powerful than the human brain. With that computational capacity, all the human thought during the last 10 thousand years can be emulated in just 1 second. What could happen if it is used more matter?

One of the most important steps to achieve the singularity is the reverse engineering of the brain. That is a Herculean task that will allow us to develop the strong artificial intelligence. Once strong A.I. is created, it will help us to comprehend the most elusive mysteries of the universe and even to create new life because strong A.I. will be trillions of times greater than the entire human race.

Living things are the most complex systems in the universe, but at the same time, these systems are simple: the complete human genome has been characterized by using 4 letters and it occupies less than 1 gigabyte of storage. This gigabyte can even be compressed. So, the information necessary to reconstruct a human like you could be stored in a pen drive.

One of the most powerful and versatile technologies in the singularity will be the use of nanobots. There will be tiny but massive nanofactories creating trillions of nanobots everyday. These nanobots will be organizing the matter atom by atom in order to create intelligent materials. Nanotech will construct real objects in the same manner the printer makes books. If the invention of the printer was astonishing, because books were available to everybody; just imagine the advent of nanotech where everything could be created just by organizing atoms at a very low price. The intellectual property will be a hot issue since everything (even you) could be replicated from information stored in a computer.

Nanobots will even enter in your bloodstream and will cure all the diseases and body malfunctions. 99% of the health problems will be overcome. Radical life extension will be a reality after circa 2050. Nanobots will replace every delicate and inefficient cell in our bodies. Death will be an option but some mystics will prefer to die because, according to their beliefs, death gives meaning to their lives and it is the beginning of the afterlife. Neuroscience has overwhelmingly demonstrated that the afterlife is the most famous human invention and that the soul and the mind are the same thing and it cannot exist without a functioning brain. In the world, there are no prestigious neuroscientists who believe in the afterlife.

Nanobots will even permeate the blood brain barrier and will add more intelligence to our brains. This non-biological part of our brains will be billions of times greater than our current capacity. Nanobots will recreate vivid experiences and brain images like feelings, scents, tastes, touching, hearing and visions. We could even have wireless connections with other brains and with super entities in order to share knowledge. Fully immersion virtual reality will fool our sensations and will make us experiment situations that are improbable, impossible, desirable, exciting, and charged of knowledge that cannot be understood with our current minds.

Brain extensions are now a reality. Neural implants for Parkinson's disease makes a dramatic change in patients who suffer from that illness. If the implant is turned off, their hands start shaking. And they stop shaking when the implant is turned on. Cochlear neural implants are now projecting auditory information to the temporal lobe in order to make deaf people hear. It is really amazing to observe the brain's neuroplasticity that can even adapt to the electronic signal of those implants. Electroencephalographic readings of the motor cortex are now used to control prosthetic limbs. Many U.S. soldiers who were injured in the Irak conflict are using these artificial limbs. There are attempts to emulate the sight: electronic visual projections to the V1 area. But the patients reported that they can only see blur images.

One form of immortality will be attained by brain uploading and downloading. The technology to scan the brain activity and topology will be perfected and will serve to download a replica of the brain. Since the supercomputers of the future will exceed our brain capacity, the computer will run a simulation or a virtual personality who will claim to be conscious. By using neural nanobots, they will reconstruct the neural pathways to represent the knowledge acquired by somebody else. That will be called brain downloading. The reconstruction could be performed in a biological brain or in a non-biological brain. The last one will be better since it will have more computational capacity.

Genetics, with a complete understanding of life sciences, will be creating new kinds of life and perfecting the ones we know. For example, muscle cells from one animal will be grown in large scales to supply meat to us. No animal suffering will exist anymore. Nanotechnology, with trillions of nanobots in each nanofactory, will be constantly constructing whatever you want for example: metals, biological wood, stones, plastic, oil, or even intelligent materials. Robotics, with strong A.I.s and ubiquitous computing, will be controlling everything and constantly innovating. Robots will be our most careful servants: even better than our right hands. The end of poverty, money, and world hunger will be inevitable. Everything will be fairer and all the world problems will be solved. But maybe new kinds of problems will emerge. I hope not.

Singularity is described by some authors as the deepest art, the most beautiful science, and the most powerful technology. Some others don't agree and they say that singularity will destroy the world. The technological singularity is named after the physics' singularity, that is, the black hole. Inside a black hole, all the known physics laws break down and nobody can predict what happen there with precision. In the same manner, after the advent of the singularity, nobody can predict what would happen next. The more complex a system is the more unpredictable it becomes.

Solar energy is the source of almost all the energy in our planet. Oil, winds, water movements, temperature changes, weather, plants, and animals are in some manner created, derived or affected by sun light. So, the best way to obtain energy in the future will be to create nano solar panels that will efficiently transform solar energy into electricity. Our best solar panels today have an efficiency of 3%, whereas nano solar panels' will be more than 30%. Many scientists say that if we capture and transform the 0.3% of all the sun light that hits the Earth in one day, this percentage will cover and exceed the energy demand of the entire human race for that day in the future.

However, 3 existential risks will be present for the human race: nuclear bombs, nano-particle contamination (gray goo), and pathological strong A.I.s. The only thing we can do to protect ourselves is to be cautious. What-if scenarios and virtual models will be indispensable to assess the impact of each and every technology that is supposed to be launched to the public. Although, terrorism and mad scientists will be present in the future, so we will have to be aware of them. When creating strong A.I.s, it is strongly necessary to program them with good and hardwired values and principles like biodiversity, tolerance, freedom, peace, and organization. The market acceptance is another way to regulate the new technological products.

But I think that too much regulation will only prevent the development of good technologies that will bring a lot of satisfaction and will stop the suffering of many people. I think the main concern in the future will be to acquire more knowledge. Traditional forms of power will be purposeless since we will live forever, with lives full of satisfactions, with an extreme abundance, and in a more controlled and supervised world where everything will be fairer and more civilized. The origin of evil will be completely understood (neurological causes) and every conflict will be solved by negotiation.

The human race will not be precariously exposed anymore to comets, collision of galaxies, and the lure of the dumb natural forces because the human intelligence will be expanding at the speed of light throughout the rest of the Universe. All the efforts will be focus on circumventing the light speed limit. A complete knowledge of the wormholes could be a solution to overcome this problem. Circa 2100, pico-technology will be a reality and it will bring the possibility of transforming this dumb Universe into a conscious Universe. This does sound crazy right now. But, with the technological tools of the future, it could be possible. Remember the law of the accelerating returns.

Opens ones mind to the rapid changes taking place - everyone should read it.
Much of the information is aplicable today and a help to those who want to be around and participate in the radical changes will have to live with in the next 20 to 40 years

THere are many research papers published on the computational capability of the biological brain, which is considered to be superior to conventional silicon processors, the mechanism of which was not fully explained from the conventional physics. I hoped that this book gave us a key (or hint) to clarify the problem, but I could not be fully satisfied contrary to my expectation and its large volume.

His imagination of progress exceeds the reality of need.Does he want humans to become immortal without considering overpopulation? Does he truely believe evolution has momentum-as he states? Why doesn't he cite any biological philosophers(i.e.Dennet) rather than 17th century truism of Kant? His knowledge of comtemporary genetics and evolution is remarkably naive.This is a classic case of a writer caught up in the exciting world of computer,nanos and "superintelligence" without sufficient knowledge comtemporary genetic and living neurulogical systems.Men such as Feyman and Hofstadter admit they do not know the meaning of "superintelligence". As a scientist, I realize that concepts of future possilities and progress of knowledge is essential.However, such concepts must be accurately based on comtemporary knowledge or the writing,such as this book, becomes science fiction.

I had two feelings reading this book: astonishment and boredom, and the latter increased exponentially.

Thankfully, in the future, Kurzweil's consciousness will be uploaded onto a non-biological substrate and thereby greatly enhanced and he will no longer repeat himself interminably.

I want to stress that his ideas are absolutely breathtaking, but not even breathtaking ideas can bear up under endless repetition.

A 652 page beast that could have been knocked off in 300 pages if Kurzweil had deleted every paragraph beginning "As I stated in chapter..."

Let's hope our transhuman AI overlords know the meaning of the phrase: "Poetic economy of detail".

5 stars for his stimulating thesis, 1 for his delivery. I give it a 3.

This book is a brilliant synthesis of many concepts and themes--scientific and technical, literary, philosophical, economic, sociological, etc. While Kurzweil has little to say, at least explicitly, about how schools and students should view the relationship between various knowledge "disciplines," the way the book is structured is instructive about how the barriers between disciplines are open to revision. The theme, tone, and scope of the book, as well as its attitude toward historical change resemble Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit." When reading a brief summary of the book or reading its jacket, one is tempted to see "The Singularity is Near" as just another scientific "theory of everything" that numerous astronomers have written in recent years. But, Kurzweil's technical mastery of cutting-edge nanoscience, robotics, and artificial intelligence concepts and his ability to discern the philosophical and cultural implications of even the most obscure details separates him from the pack of innovative astronomy theorists. Some of Kurzweil's attempts at economic and philosophical discourse are limited. But, even so, they serve as valuable points of reference for future discussion.

This book, and the ideas contained within, have enabled me to survive the current round of ignorant, short sighted debates over economics and politics. All of that will (hopefully) become moot. If we can only keep the stasists (from The Future and its Enemies, Virgina Postrel) from short circuiting the Singularity via legislation, everything should be sci-fi cool by the time I am 60 years old....

One thing's for sure: I can't argue with Kurzweill. Mostly because he's way over my head. Common sense and personal experience are about the only tools to use in trying to figure out if his predictions are going to pan out.

Personally I believe all his glowing technological advances will come to pass, but in our lifetime? Hard to believe we'll come to accept immortality so quickly. Not so much because we don't want to live forever, but because we don't know yet what will be given up in exchange for life everlasting. We don't have information on that part of the equation. I certainly didn't see it in this book. I don't think that we know yet what that will be.

Kurzweill assures us that nothing will change our humanity, or our humanness. We will still be able to create and appreciate art, beauty, love. We'll just keep getting better and safer and smarter along with being able to live longer and maybe even forever. But mortality is part of humanity. The true definition of life includes a component of death. Without death, life is merely existence. Is humanity prepared to merely exist as opposed to live? And what is existence as opposed to life?

Provocative theory. Hope I'm dead before it happens.

Sue Lange
author, We, Robots.

The singularity plot at the beginning of the book is amazing. It graphically depicts what we all have experienced in our lifetime. Each year another great invention is introduced. Computer storage gets smaller and cheaper to the point where we are wearing gigabytes of storage on our keychain. His predictions for Artificial Intelligence and the reverse-engineering of the brain will probably happen and one can only wonder what the next hundred years will bring. I highly recomment this book for any young science student.

I think some of the reviewers are missing the point of this book. Kurzweil is not an optimist - and I don't even think he would consider himself a 'proponent' of GNR, specific IT advances, or the changes he is predicting. The whole point is that these advances are part of our evolution as a species - any resistance by governments, ethicists, or individuals are automatically calcuated into his predictions. He's looking at the net effect of the progress (spurned primarily through economics and economic darwinism) and not by renegade or revolutionary scientists or technologists.

The advances he is predicting are based on the worldview that these advances are inevitable - just as our biological evolution was inevitable (especially with hindsight) - and, all the technological advances (especially in the past 100 years) are the proof that the speed of developing and adopting technologies into society is ever increasing, to a point where it is unstoppable and ubiquitous.

Take the cell phone example - some may resist the adoption of cell phones - saying that they invade their privacy, and overcomplicate their lives to a point that is unacceptable to them. This is a valid view, and individuals have the option to choose not to adopt this technology. But, the fact of the matter is that this technology has and is changing the world - the overwhelming majority of the world population does not object to cell phone use, and in fact many are being empowered by them (look at subscription rates in China and India over the past 6 months - something in the millions of new subscribers every month).

This technology changes society - it changes human interrelationships - and it changes human-technology relationships. Having a cellphone brings us one step closer to being 'always-on' - always connected. It comes closer to being integrated into our biology (you can sleep with a cellphone - carry it where-ever you go - this level of connectivity previously would have required being physically tethered to a land-line)

There is little (if any) judgement in Kurzweil's conclusions. They are logically grounded (which is why he provides so many counter arguments, and supporting data). They are based specifically on the worldview that our evolution is now in our hands, and much of what we do with it can be predicted by how we've developed and adopted technologies in the past - or how biological evolution occurred. He admits to a large unknown - the fact that we don't know what the resulting convergence of technology and biology will look, or feel like. The fact that this will happen does not allow us to see or even comprehend what this will mean for us.

My personal feeling is that this is the most worriesome part - the fact that the change may be so radical, that some people (or even class of people) may not even survive the transition - or it could in fact create multiple classes of humans (humans & proto-humans). But, again, there is no judgement in this - if that is our fate, it will be. Just as wars in the past have determined the current global power-structure - there will likely be conflict involved in the process. I hope that some of these advances and their inherent connected nature will preclude or somehow prevent the conflict from being a violent one - but, you have to imagine it is a possibility.

There is a lot of evidence to support the likelihood of Kurzweil's near-term worldview. If his predictions about the speed of change are correct, to be one of the few capable of internalizing and understanding the implications, I believe you will be at an advantage in life and business. If you understand and believe the potential of this, but close your eyes to it because you don't like the implications, you will be on of the worst off when it does happen. And, the best situation is if you understand the implications, and are in a position to direct them when they start to occur, you can help to make sure that they do so in the most equitable and position fashion possible.

Over the top ...

Kurzweil's enthusiasm of writing style exceeds the logical supposition. Take what we know ... then divide it by the sqrt of 2, multiply by pi, raise to the power of n ... there you have it ... bio-transcendance. You gotta have Kurzweil's imagination to extrapolate, then accept the premise that computational evolution can, and will, transcend biology based on a premise that high speed computational machinations will outstrip the machinators.

I agree with another reviewer that Kurzweil will spawn a next generation in SciFi.

On the one hand, I don't have a snappy comeback for the fact that computation has been getting exponentially faster and cheaper for the past 115 years. One could argue that it was three distinct periods of exponential growth, as opposed to one long period of double exponential growth, but exponential growth is still a pretty big deal. When one considers that Moore's Law is good for another 10-15 years, depending on whom one listens to, it's not a big stretch to think that people will be working on what to do when Moore's Law hits the wall in the mean time. It's not a big stretch to think that something as small as either molecules or individual atoms will be used to represent 1's and 0's. It's not a big stretch to think that either quantum computing or biological computing will be utilized in the future, bringing a significant parallelism to computing.

I wouldn't mind having computers do some of the grunt work that humans currently do. For example, it would be nice to mention a book, and immediately have all the Amazon reviews, weighted by the number and percentage of people who found them useful. Kurzweil imagines it being projected on to your retina, or wired into your prosthetic optic nerve, but I'm happy with seeing on my PDA for the time being. It's not a big stretch to think of computer systems that know me better than I do, because they observe and data mine my individual choices. David Gelerntner talked about this five years ago. So certain weak connotations of humans transcending biology have already been contemplated. As I write this, I see a picture in my mind's eye of a framework where someone could select portions of a web page or a set of web pages, and request that some computation or database manipulation be done on the selected portions.

To summarize, I'm ok with what Kurzweil has said about advances in technology in the first hundred pages or so.

On the other hand, Kurzweil talks about the impacts and consequences of these advances in technology with the same glib, foregone-conclusion tone that he uses when discussing technology. I tried imagining the other day what living to 200 would be like, and what it would be like visiting my great-great-great-great-grandchildren. Kurzweil considers this as an unqualified good, but I believe it's a lot trickier than that. Likewise for many other technologies.

There are many critics of this book, and Kurzweil has tried to answer them all. He mentioned Bill Joy's article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" multiple times in the course of the book, but considers Joy to be offering a friendly alternate perspective, as opposed to being an opponent of the future. He spends the most time responding to philosophers John Searle (author of the famous "Chinese Room" thought experiment) and William Dembski (advocate of intelligent design).

Kurzweil sees us as about 40 years away from the singularity, moving on a smooth exponential path since the dawn of the universe. I say there will be some very interesting twists and turns along the way.

A friend recommended this book to me, so I was excited to read about a futurist's view on technology and medicine, since I work in biotechnology research for medical applications. However, the outrageous claims and messianic wild-eyed tone of this book really cranked up my B.S.-meter. Kurzweil's admitting to taking *250* (!) supplements a day both orally and IV was the real clincher. This guy is neurotic. He is so afraid of his own death, so blinded by technology and his scientific orgasms, that he fails to take into account the complexity of the human condition, both individually and collectively. He ignores those facets of being human that don't jibe with his hyper-intellectual, reductionist views. Human beings evolved to both think AND to feel. He has reduced human beings to merely thinking machines. He dreams of a future where we transfer our consciousness to robots, thus shedding the mortal coil of our biological bodies (which he hilariously calls 'version 1.0'). But having a biological body is an intrinsic aspect of being human. So much of our life revolves around eating, sleeping, dreaming, touching, sex, growing, and so on. If we give all that up, will we still be human? What's more, many people don't see death as the end of their consciousness, as they believe in the immortality of the soul. Kurzweil comes from a very narrow cultural niche, the nerdy materialist/atheist Western technologist. How many people of the world, from the devout religious folks of Islam and Christianity, to the earth-centered native peoples around the globe and New Agers, will buy into this technolust vision? Don't hold your breath waiting for 2045.

Ray Kurzweil is a national treasure, a man who thinks at the level of Einstein but only 50 years later. There are a number of people like Kurzweil walking around on the planet. You have to search for them. When you find them, try to learn everything you can from them. They will help you move exponentially to the next level. He is a solitary thinker, operating on the outer limits of human knowledge, and then some.

I have read his other books, and in many ways, this book is the sequel to "The Age of Spiritual Machines". What Kurzweil is writing about in this book is his belief that we are moving towards s UNION if you will, of human intelligence and machines or objects that will have equal and eventually superior intelligence. Is this the goal of the people who spend their lives working in Artificial Intelligence, probably?

The difference is that Kurzweil knows so much more than his fellow thinkers, and more importantly for us, he has the capacity to convey it to those of us who are not full-time players in his arena. This quality of information conveyance is a vastly underappreciated skill. In my work investing billions of dollars in stock investments, I have access to just about anybody I want, because I have the capacity to write a check. You have no idea how many actual geniuses I deal with who CAN'T speak, let alone write the English language.

Kurzweil is different. He can get these concepts across to us in an interesting language spiced with stories that we can all understand. He does not visibly suffer from the ego needs of most geniuses. He is comfortable in his own skin, and that feeling is conveyed to us also.

Due to his position in the exalted world of the super Mensa types, Kurzweil can also access the top minds of who's doing what in the world today. Men who run Fortune 100 companies are more than willing to share the knowledge of their research departments with this famous thinker.

At the upper levels of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Department are some of the smartest people on the planet working on Artificial Intelligence, and edge-of-knowledge sophisticated computer applications. Kurzweil is in a position to interact with all of them, and this accounts for why much of what he writes about appears nowhere else.

He also brings something else to the table. He is a very successful inventor and entrepreneur who is now independently wealthy. He knows what works in what environment, and what doesn't. He knows when something is being brought to market too early, or way too late. In the book he states, "I realized that most inventions fail not because the R&D department can't get them to work, but because the timing is wrong. Inventing is a lot like surfing: you have to anticipate and catch the wave at just the right moment." I am an investor; I have never heard it said better.

His concept of his "intuitive linear view of history" is absolutely fascinating, and compelling. He believes that the rate of change is accelerating. For years we have all heard the concept that the only constant is change. Kurzweil believes the calculus is changing. We have already entered a world where we are witnessing a dramatic change in the rate of acceleration of change.

Just ten or so years ago, cell phones had minimal impact. The Internet was nowhere near the adaptive state it is in today, and universal information flow did not exist. There were no bloggers, traditional media dominated, and people were more easily lied to by politicians with impunity. Things are changing aren't they?

Here's the bottom line on Kurzweil. Most of the time you read a book to take one major thought out of the document. Sometimes it's a single page; sometimes it's a single line. Occasionally, you find that rare book where there is something on every page that is outstanding, motivating, even framework changing. This is such a book, and therein lays its importance.

There's one more reason to read a book like this. Do you remember when Ross Perot ran for President? One of the metaphors he used to refer to was a story of the carpenter he knew. The words were "Measure twice, cut once." This is an example of what I call the need to be mentored. There are people that can teach you things that if you spent 20 years studying the topic, you would never learn. The carpenters' of "Measure twice, cut once," is an example of that.

When you read Kurzweil, you are eliminating the need to read hundreds to thousands of other books. There is knowledge on every page for you to absorb and ponder. Buy this book, and have an orgasm of the mind.


Richard Stoyeck

For the few examples of exponential growth, most notably Moore's Law, there are 10 (battery life, transportation speed, food production per acre, life span, etc) of areas that we have devoted a great deal of effort towards improving without exponential returns.

While this book presents some interesting points it is little more than psuedo science. Perhaps Kurzweil's most important conclusion, that we are nothing more than biological computers, is the most scary. The conclusion of this, that he does not raise, is that there is no free will. Maybe he is correct, I doubt it though.

I have used this text and its precursors in my teaching of IT Trends & Futures for some years now in order to encourage my students to think critically & objectively about the implications of exponential growth. I also present them with Bill Joy's "moratorium on technology " idea and the views of those who think its all so fanciful that it cant/wont/shouldn't happen.
I found K's charts in Chapter1 very convincing and the 6 epoch notion quite plausible.
However when it comes to GNR I do not think the author has presented enough convincing or scholarly illustrations or arguments. There is good coverage of Genotech but too little substance on Nanotech or on Strong AI/Robotics. In many ways his coverage of both the latter could therefore be dismissed as wishful thinking rather than a fact-based overview of where these technologies are headed.
The cartoon of K holding the Singularity Is Near placard says a lot!
Some students have pointed out that K's future vision seems a bit like fundamentalist rapture or Armagedon. Can we expect the Creationist/ID lobby to start preaching from this book? Martin Rees, England's Astronomer Royal makes similar observations in "Our Final Hour" [page 16-19] where he observes that "belief in the Singularity relates to mainstream futurology rather as the milenerian hope of 'Rapture' relates to mainstream xtianity".
On the other hand this text effectively spreads the message that we are all living in a critical period of evolution and there is need for a greater understanding of the possible impact of exponential growth., which may well be more critical and threatening to all our futures than the other demons of global warming and globalisation, which are both more extensively written about.

Ray Kurzweil's books always invoke contradictory emotions in me - excitement generated by his bold predictions and wariness toward some of its implications. In the `Singularity is Near' Kurzweil is true to form. He continues where he left off in his previous book `The Age of Spiritual Machines' and presents a thrilling version of the future of our civilization.

In the picture that Kurzweil unveils, the pace of change of human created technology is accelerating and its powers are expanding at an exponential rate. Human life will be completely and irreversibly transformed within the next few decades by developments in biology and nanotechnology. This will enable humanity to shed the biological conditions of mortality and limited brain power (intelligence). The non biological intelligence harnessed would be millions of times more powerful and would help us colonize the Universe. He calls this the point of Singularity at which time we lose the distinction between man and machine as well as between physical and virtual reality.

Kurzweil has no qualms on setting a date for the Singularity. It is 2045. By that time, he claims, we would have completely reverse engineered the human brain, and would be leveraging non biological intelligence a billion times more powerful. We would be able to change or upgrade any part of the human body and would be able to practically live for ever (if you are still alive then). Kurzweil is very confident that other serious issues confronting humanity such as poverty, hunger, energy shortage, global warming and so on will be easily solved by the power of technology. Most of the solutions seem to depend on Genetics, Nanotechnology, Robotics (GNR) supported by Artificial Intelligence. With nano computers, nanobots, nanotubes, foglets and other inventions, complemented by `the power of ideas' (according to the author, there is an idea to solve any problem if you think hard enough) every hurdle seems to be easily surmountable.

The only doubt he seems to have is in our ability in the future to get around the restrictions imposed by the speed of light, which would hinder our speed of expansion in the universe. He is however quick to reassure us with conjectures based on wormholes and quantum mechanics that can help humanity get around the problem. And one does not need to worry about what we will do after we take over the Universe - the possibility of multiple universes and creation of new universes can still keep us busy.

By building up the concept of singularity, Kurzweil is also forced to prove that other civilizations with higher levels of intelligence than us does not exist (if they existed they would have crossed the point of singularity and expanded across the universe) throwing the work of organizations like SETI out of the door. If he is correct, it does put humanity at the center of our universe leading to some profound implications about the role and responsibility of our civilization.

Despite Kurzweil's seemingly far-fetched predictions of the future, this book is an absorbing read. The Singularity is Near draws you in by the excitement it creates through highlighting the wondrous developments that could be made possible by the revolution in genetics and nanotechnology.

Ray Kurzweil is utterly relentless, merciless, and authoritative as he hammers home his vision of the future. He doesn't just make this stuff up, but opens his book with about fifty graphs depicting the exponential trends in current technology. Graphs depict the increase in computer power, its reduction in cost, the nanotechnological patents applied for, the size of chips, and so on. Dr. Kurzweil doesn't so much indicate trends, as prove that they are inevitable.

Polymath Ray Kurzweil is difficult to debate, he practically invented the voice-recognition software that is now used on every 1-800 phone line, as well as the modern electronic synthesizer, and he has been described as the "rightful heir to Edison." A gentleman by the name of Dr. Richard E. Smalley was foolish enough to attempt a critique of Kurzweil and recieved a ten-page broadside in "Singularity." Smalley is on the ropes in about two sentences with his wild "Fat Fingers, Thin Fingers" assertions, and by the time ten pages are up the guy is cringing in a corner.

K. Eric Drexler comes out of all this looking pretty good, and Marvin Minsky for sponsoring Drexler's world-first doctorate in nanotechnology. Ultimate credit goes to Dick Feynman, as well it should, his 1959 speech "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" started it all.

Who doesn't want to believe in Ray Kurweil? The future is rosy; poverty, hunger, and pollution will be eliminated; we'll live to a thousand years of age and won't work, but instead goof-off in virtual reality all day. Kurzweil himself is the real deal, munching 250 vitamins a day in an attempt to stay young, so not only is he visionary, but juiced.

In just forty more years we will barely be recognizable as human, having transcended the fleshy paradigm we now inhabit. It is a great time to be alive, a time to ponder and await the Singularity, as it is surely near.

Kurzwell's vision isn't perfect. But part of the point of this book is that no one single person will comprise the evolutionary singularity, it will take every single part of humanity to plug into our world for that to happen. He's doing a relatively noble thing, standing on the edge of reality, and sending out a jolting vision of the future that is one of a kind. There's no need to worship Kurzwell, it's simply that people ought to pay attention to this theoretical science masterpiece and heed it's alarming beautiful call to arms against pessimism and backward oriented thought. Awesome.

I'm pretty much an agnostic on the question of whether or not Kurzweil's fundamental assumptions are correct. I do think, however, that one should seek out opposing views before rejoicing in his assertions (or panicking, depending on one's point of view). John Horgan is one such voice of dissent, and I recommend reading his essay entitled "Brain Chips and Other Dreams of the Cyber-evangelists", which you can find by googling. Here's his last paragraph, which might be good advice to disciples of Kurzweil: "I try to forget this vale of tears myself now and then by reading books like William Gibson's Neuromancer or watching movies like The Matrix. But I also try not to confuse science fiction with science."