Briefly Noted: Singularity Seer
Ray Kurzweil has an astonishing record as an inventor and technological forecaster, but he is perhaps most famous for his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near. In it he predicts that by 2045 exponential technological growth will cause computer intelligence to outstrip human intelligence, utterly changing everything about the human world.
A new documentary by Barry Ptolemy, Transcendent Man, humanizes the geek prophet by telling Kurzweil's personal story: his longing for a father who died young, his struggles with heart problems and diabetes, the 200 vitamins he takes each day. But the film puts too much emphasis on the psychological why at the expense of the technological how. The Kurzweil who invents devices to help the blind read and gives PowerPoint presentations full of logarithmic curves to packed stadiums is ultimately a more compelling character than the guy with a storage locker full of his dad's dry cleaning receipts who hopes to bring the old man back to life someday.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
thank u
thank you
http://www.iraqn.com/
http://www.v9f.net/chat