The Singularity Is Near
When Humans Transcend Biology
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil, hailed by Bill Gates as “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence,” presents an “elaborate, smart, and persuasive” (The Boston Globe) view of the future course of human development.
“Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.”—Los Angeles Times
“Startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“An important book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity.
While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near presents a radical and optimistic 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Renowned inventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist a large-minded one at that and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince given the scope of his projections, that's inevitable but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.
Customer Reviews
I had to laugh
As I was reading the section about books in the technology section.... On my iPad.
Puzzled
I have downloaded the sample. And like so many others I am a bit puzzled. Why for a book about the future (especially presented by a company obsessed with the future and quality) is this book so poorly presented at the price demanded. I have a high resolution screen with the most atrocious graphics. For a company that purports to love good design presenting a book by a renowned author and futurist in such a shoddy format is a puzzle.
Positive (Absolute) Review
Very happy with the book in its digital form, very much looking forward to my hard copy arriving soon. The issues others had with the quality seemed focused around the sample. The samples are always glitchy, zero issues with the images in the purchased copy. And the material in the book is worth $20, as far as I’m concerned. There are far more books at offered at similar or higher premiums that don’t come close to touching the utility in this synthesized masterpiece.