For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected
and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In
his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that
computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its
best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary
process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and
skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater
capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Renowned inventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines)
may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has
argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry
is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is
at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the
theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the
merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR"
(genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of
unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and
so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is
heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily
twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no
constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such
developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale
transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a
repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of
speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of
charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be
easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one
at that—and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks"
as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring
to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady
and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections,
that's inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.
(Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Kurzweil is one of the world’s most respected thinkers and entrepreneurs. Yet the thesis he posits in Singularity is so singular that many readers will be astounded—and perhaps skeptical. Think Blade Runner or Being John Malkovich
magnified trillion-fold. Even if one were to embrace his
techno-optimism, which he backs up with fascinating details, Kurzweil
leaves some important questions relating to politics, economics, and
morality unanswered. If machines in our bodies can rebuild cells, for
example, why couldn’t they be reengineered as weapons? Or think of
singularity, notes the New York Times Book Review, as the
"Manhattan Project model of pure science without ethical constraints."
Kurzweil’s vision requires technology, which we continue to build. But
it also requires mass acceptance and faith.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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