The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

My heart sank when I got this book. An American book on science that had that many pages must be written by someone who got paid by how many times they were able to repeat themselves. This has been my experience with books much thinner than this. Yet I was quite wrong. There is very little repetition and it is all appropriate. The book is very well written with careful attention given to the order in which ideas are presented. It is an astonishingly wide ranging book and essential reading for anyone who is interested in where technology is taking us. How the author found time to write it, along with perfoming all his other duties beats me. He must be one hell of a guy! The only thing I take issue with him on, is... no I won't spoil it for you! You can make up your own mind. Just read it!

Ray Kurzweil isn't renowned for his authoring talents and is better known for his inventions. I remember many years ago owning a copy of Kerzweil's voice recognition program (I forget the exact title) and being impressed with its accuracy. Kerzweil is also renowned for his work in digital music and a vast array of other fields. In this book the author expands on his vision of the future as he sees it in the next 50 years. The main thrust of the book is that Moore's law is continuing and as such computing power is increasing exponentially (exponentials are a large part of this book). The premise that as computing power increases dramatically we will be able to create even more technology, with the aim to "uploading" ourselves into our computers. This at first seems like science fiction but be assured that the author looks at every detail and examines the feasibility of each stage of his premise. The results are startling, and I must admit give me a strange feeling in the gut of my stomach when I realised the full breadth of his suggestions. This book could be considered a sequel to the author's previous books, the Age of Intelligent Machines, and the Age of Spiritual Machines. However you don't need to have read these previous books to understand the concepts involved. A basic understanding of genetics and nanotechnology would help, but are not required. I don't know if the authors predictions will come to pass (And I honestly hope they do!) but I would recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in the future and who wants to prepare themselves in advance.

I enjoyed this book. The central concept is fascinating and retrospectively very plausible. The book is 10 years old and some but not all of its predictions for this decade have already happened. The extrapolation into the future starts to feel like the “culture” civilisation in an Iain M Banks Sci Fi novel. Difficult to know who got what ideas from who. Don’t know whether to be optimistic or terrified about the future. I’m nearly 50 years old, so I’ll definitely be taking my Statins, vitamins and blood pressure pills in the hope that I can “live long enough to to live forever”

This book will blow your mind. Exponential technological advance: if you buy the argument it puts everything else into perspective. Chill out, let the robots sort out the world’s problems.

Exceptional book and fantastic service delivery from Amazon.

I agree with many of the other reviews here. As a technophile, I found some of the ideas in this book very thought provoking and interesting. However, I did get rather tired of the author's style and self promotion. I only read about half the book. I found myself skipping through whole sections that laboured some point or other of (then) current technical research. This is not usual for me. I am normally a methodical reader who reads every word. The author doesn't explore the implications of the singularity for anyone outside of the western world, and spends little time exploring the potential risks and downsides (war, exploitation, or perhaps just a 'Terminator' style end of the world!). In fact, outside of the US was quite rare. The 'dialogues' between people from different times were so cringe-worthy that I had to flick past these also. In summary, interesting ideas, probably available elsewhere in a less annoying format!

If Kurzweil is wrong in his predictions and there is no technical revolution just around the corner, the worst that that can be said is that he has written an incredibly thought-provoking book that all intelligent people should read. But if he's right, all the human race is shortly to be either wiped out or made immortal. Of course, that just sounds like silly hype but if you've read the book and can say why it's hype please let me know. I for one can't see why Kurzweil's main predictions are wrong.

Frightening but compelling reading .

Muy interesante, el autor conoce de muchos temas.

Work of art. Except for the sections on Neuroscience and the chapters detailing the present day innovations of 2005. This book is a classic and will be revered in the coming decades.

Fabulous

Ray Kurzweil magari non è sempre moderato e cauto come altri pensatori, ma traccia una prospettiva a tinte forti, di grande ispirazione

The Singularity is Near is one of the most audacious books I have ever read outside of religious texts. I mean audacious in a positive manner, in terms of the scope of material covered, the command of technical detail and inspired vision of the future. For a relative small price to pay, the reader is invited on a mind-blowing journey of what is possible in the near future, due to the relentless and overpowering reach and march of technology, and an extrapolation of where that journey is taking us. Glimpses of that extrapolation can be seen even now. Bottomline, Kurzweil explains in fairly understandable detail where the exponential growth in computer processing, microelectronic and medical advancements are taking us and the book is as much a warning for humans to get ready for the future as an inspired vision. By 2045 Kurzweil predicts the Singularity will occur; that is, humans will transcend biology, i.e. we will no longer be fully human but will be "part man/woman and part machine" or cyborg in other words. The implications are not grasped by many Kurzweil implies but he attempts to prove by extrapolation from Moore's Law and the Turing Test how that might occur. Kurzweil contends that once the Singularity is achieved, humanity will be off to the races in terms of growth potential since human intelligence will be digitized and can be uploaded, downloaded, and interchanged much like computers operate today and the human body will be increasingly machine-like as organs will become passe'. The book is an intellectual feast whether one agrees with Kurzweil or not. There are great discussions as to when computers will become indistinguishable versus humans (Turing Test), a calculation of the computing power of a rock (yes, you read correctly) and a romp in the calculation of the likely number of intelligent civilizations in the universe (Kurzweil thinks there is only one and it happens to be us) using the Drake Equation where he explains his assumptions in each variable. The latter exposition is the single best discussion I have ever read anywhere (Sagan et al)on the issue of intelligent life potential in the universe. If nothing else, the book is dynamite to any serious reader who likes to ponder the future and technological change. The downside for many readers will be Kurzweil's atheistic approach which views humanity as souless organisms and an unrealistic view that the bulk of current humanity could ever reach the potential he describes. As a Christian I don't take offense at Kurzweil's thesis, however, because the Bible argues that humanity only reaches full potential in Christ, otherwise humanistic approaches devolve into evil whether abetted by technology or not. Kurzweil is only focusing on the humanistic approach and he doesn't believe (his opinion) that the trends he is discussing will progress toward evil or cause ever more chaos in the world. That perhaps is a very tall stretch when considering the shape of our world today. Notwithstanding, I can accept Kurzweil's thesis without offense because it is one man's opinion versus that of many others. I can thank him, though, that his projections are as much a warning as to where technology can be taking us and the scientific community is not preparing the rest of us very well on that subject. Objectively, one should appreciate the brilliance of Kurzweil, his command of technical issues and his sheer attempt at depicting such a theme in the first place. Truly audacious.