The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology - Softcover

Raymond Kurzweil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0715635611 ISBN 13: 9780715635612

Publisher: Duckworth, 2006

Synopsis

'Startling in scope and bravado.' The New York Times

A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and who Bill Gates calls 'the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.'

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.

PRAISE FOR THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR

'Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.' Los Angeles Times

'Elaborate, smart and persuasive.' The Boston Globe

'A pleasure to read.' The Wall Street Journal

An Amazon Best Science Book of 2005

A CBS News Best Autumn Books of 2005

A St Louis Post-Dispatch Best Nonfiction Book of 2005

About this title

Review:

'Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations - transforming our lives in ways we can't yet imagine.' --Bill Gates

'Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.' Los Angeles Times

'Elaborate, smart and persuasive.' The Boston Globe

'A pleasure to read.' --The Wall Street Journal

A CBS News Best Autumn Books of 2005

An Amazon Best Science Book of 2005

--A St Louis Post-Dispatch Best Nonfiction Book of 2005

Synopsis:

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil examines the next step in the evolutionary process of the union of human and machine. Kurzweil foresees the dawning of a new civilization where we will be able to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity, combining our biological skills with the vastly greater capacity, speed and knowledge-sharing abilities of our creations. In practical terms, human ageing and illness will be reversed; pollution will be stopped and world hunger and poverty will be solved. There will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. "The Singularity is Near" offers a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

About this edition

• Publisher: Duckworth
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0715635611
• ISBN 13: 9780715635612
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672