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Loading... The Singularity is Near (2005)by Ray Kurzweil
I think he has some good ideas in here. And I think he has some great expertise on the matters he discusses. I just don't think the book was balanced at all. I think the book could have been a lot more concise. Half way through the book the nanotechnology started sounding like magic fairy dust. read it before the movie/coming soon http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2005/Dec/hour2_122305.html If this book convinced me of anything, it's that technology allowing for humans to transcend biology will in fact be available shortly. However, it I couldn't share Kurzweil's optimism that it will be possible. Our society is far too conservative and capitalistic for something so foreign and reforming. His writing is generally easy to follow and although his optimistic bias is obvious, it's almost impossible to refute. Even if the Singularity does not happen in our lifetime, we are certainly in for massive change! (Alistair) I enjoy reading the popular-targeted books on transhumanism and related concepts, now and then, for three reasons: 1.To keep track of what the popularizers are saying; 2.To get a broader view than one gets from reading much more specific and narrowly-focused sources of information in the field; and 3.To receive a hopeful view of the future, rather than the godawful tedious disasterbationist nightmare that the 'popular' futurism seems to focus on these days. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed it, certainly, I am entirely unqualified to review it in any meaningful sense; for the simple reason of future shock levels. I run somewhere around SL3.5, so for me, this was a pleasant stroll through familiar and well-worn ideas. Since this is almost certainly not the position which perhaps 99% of its potential readers will approach it from, I think perhaps taking my advice on it would be a bad idea. Perhaps you should try the LibraryThing or Amazon reviews instead? ( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2009/08/the_singularity_is_near_ray... ) Facinating and important book, even if I'm a bit skeptical about the math. His criteria for variables seems more than a little subjective. no reviews | add a review Has as a reference guide/companion
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The Singularity Is Near portrays what life will be like after this event— a human- machine civilization where our experiences shift from real reality to virtual reality and where our intelligence becomes nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful. In practical terms, this means that human aging and pollution will be reversed; world hunger will be solved; our bodies and environment transformed by nanotechnology to overcome the limitations of biology, including death; and virtually any physical product can be created from information alone. The Singularity Is Near also considers the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes, and is certain to be one of the most widely discussed and provocative books of 2005.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:52:28 -0400)
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.--Publisher description.… (more)
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