The Singularity is Near
Ray Kurzweil's book is all about how developing
technology is about to enter a positive feedback loop, with new tech improving
computers, computers improving robotics, robotics improving nanotechnology,
nanotechnology improving computers, and humanity reaping the benefits of a world
improving so fast it's
unimaginable.
He's a nut.
Now, I'm not saying he's wrong. I suspect his technology projections are optimistic. Not because they're unreasonable, but because things in the future tend to be a lot more complicated than we can see from here in the past. Still, his view of the future is a welcome and rosy counterpoint to most of the doomsday predictions I've been reading recently.
There's no question that the world is changing pretty fast, and it's changing faster and faster every decade. Most people kind of assume that diminishing returns will kick in at some point, and change will kind of slow down and level off at some high technology level. Kurzweil agrees, I guess, but his high technology level is unimaginably high. He envisions computer-assisted humans living a perceived lifetime of ten thousand years (or whatever) -- but in the space of a single second.
Fascinating and highly recommended reading.
He's a nut.
Now, I'm not saying he's wrong. I suspect his technology projections are optimistic. Not because they're unreasonable, but because things in the future tend to be a lot more complicated than we can see from here in the past. Still, his view of the future is a welcome and rosy counterpoint to most of the doomsday predictions I've been reading recently.
There's no question that the world is changing pretty fast, and it's changing faster and faster every decade. Most people kind of assume that diminishing returns will kick in at some point, and change will kind of slow down and level off at some high technology level. Kurzweil agrees, I guess, but his high technology level is unimaginably high. He envisions computer-assisted humans living a perceived lifetime of ten thousand years (or whatever) -- but in the space of a single second.
Fascinating and highly recommended reading.
Filed Thu - January 5, 2006, 11:44 AM in
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