The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

Great book!

A refreshing read that offers a positive outlook on the future. Kurzweil explores the transformative potential of AI in areas like healthcare, housing, and energy production, while acknowledging the associated risks. This book complements my personal favorite, "The Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker, which examines the long-term decline of violence.

O autor nos atualiza e nos alerta para a necessidade do estabelecimento de uma conformidade ética que é premente para garantirmos a segurança da própria humanidade diante de novas tecnologias emergentes.

boken levererades ej i nyskick utan var tydligt att den var använd och hade lånats/lästs av någon annan.

What a disappointment. The Singularity is Near has a proud place in my book collection, so I was thrilled to see Ray Kurzweil had written a follow-up. In reality, this is more of a reprint of the original with only the first (very short) part feeling like genuinely new material. Moreover, much of the rest of the book is full of meandering waffle that gets incredibly irritating after a while. At some point Ray starts going on about the proliferation of flushing toilets in the 20th century. I kid you not. Just too many tangents like this. At that point I requested a refund. If you haven't read the first book, this may be worth a look still for some of the nice insights into the speed of technological progress. And I like the fact that Ray emphasises how much good progress has happened over the years in eg. crime reduction, which most of the public don't seem to realise (presumably, otherwise they wouldn't be voting for loonies like Trump).

Kurzweil envisions scanning and uploading the human brain to digital substrates, leading to digital consciousness and non-biological evolution. He argues that humanity is rapidly approaching a point—the Singularity—when artificial intelligence will match and then surpass human intelligence, leading to an era of profound transformation. He predicts this will happen by 2045, maintaining the same timeline from his earlier work. His prediction that humans and machines will be more integrated with humans connecting their brains to Cloud (with the help of nanobots), expanding their intelligence, processing power and data storage capacity, is fascinating! I don't know if this is something happening any time soon but he thinks this is not too far in the future. I enjoyed reading this book.