Overall this book did not represent enough new concepts that I have not found elsewhere. Instead it seemed repetitive. I was not especially impressed with his speculation about the future as it did not seem to rise to the level of serious science that I expect from an author like Mr. Kurzweil. I would recommend the author's book on the Singularity as a more interesting alternative read. ( )

On Intelligence seemed to provide a more original idea. Not sure I got much out of this. ( )

This book is an interesting view into the brain and how one would simulate it using a computer system. Kurzweil describes brain science; including how the neurons are organized and connected to one another, and he describes the necessary computational power needed to emulate the human brain. Kurzweil also goes into the philosophical implications of such a process, and at what point an Artificial Intelligence would obtain what we call consciousness.

Included throughout is a great many predictions and philosophical introspection. For instance, Kurzweil calculates the power of the brain in bits and it's capacity. With the developments of certain mathematical techniques and models it was possible to develop such things as Optical Recognition Software and Software that recognizes the nuances of speech. We also discover the differences between brains and computers and how one is superior to another and vice versa.

There isn't really much more to say, but I really enjoyed this book quite a bit. It went by pretty fast for all that as well. I don't know about reading it again, but I suppose I would if I had time. ( )

This book was a long, hard slog for me. It seems that it's written with an intended audience of others who work in the AI or at least computer science field, which is not me. I struggled on and found chapters 9 and 10 most interesting. There is a lot of philosophy in this book, which I liked, but I would have appreciated a more accessible discussion of the AI concepts. ( )

Interesting read, though I think Kurzweil makes light of the complexity of the human brain. ( )