The Age of Knowledge
August 6, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
An illustration of the second industrial revolution written for “The Futurecast,” a monthly column in the Library Journal… read more
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The Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension
November 21, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
On November 15-17, 2002, leaders in life extension and cryonics came together to explore how the emerging technologies of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and cryonics will enable humans to halt and ultimately reverse aging and disease and live indefinitely.… read more
The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine
February 21, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil predicts a future with direct brain-to-computer access and conscious machines. From Scientific American.… read more
The Drexler-Smalley debate on molecular assembly
December 1, 2003 by Ray Kurzweil
Nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler and Rice University Professor and Nobelist Richard Smalley have engaged in a crucial debate on the feasibility of molecular assembly. Smalley’s position, which denies both the promise and the peril of molecular assembly, will ultimately backfire and will fail to guide nanotechnology research in the needed constructive direction, says Ray Kurzweil. By the 2020s, molecular assembly will provide tools to effectively combat poverty, clean up our… read more
Future technologies for sensory impairments will include automatic subtitles on the fly for the hearing-impaired, pocket-sized reading machines, automatic language translators, and intelligent devices sent through the bloodstream. These devices will also augment the senses for the general population.… read more
The Future of Libraries, Part 2: The End of Books
August 6, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
A look at what may replace books, written for “The Futurecast,” a monthly column in the Library Journal.… read more
The Future of Libraries, Part 3: The Virtual Library
August 6, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
A look at the virtual library, written for “The Futurecast,” a monthly column in the Library Journal.… read more
The Future of Life
March 30, 2003 by Ray Kurzweil
A coming era of personalized genetic medicine, breakthroughs that radically extend the human lifespan, nanomedicine, and the merger of our biological species with our own technology were among the future visions presented at TIME’s “The Future of Life” conference.… read more
THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
March 2, 2003 by Ray Kurzweil
Most viewers of The Matrix consider the more fanciful elements–intelligent computers, downloading information into the human brain, virtual reality indistinguishable from real life–to be fun as science fiction, but quite remote from real life. Most viewers would be wrong. As renowned computer scientist and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil explains, these elements are very feasible and are quite likely to be a reality within our lifetimes.… read more
The Human Machine Merger: Why We Will Spend Most of Our Time in Virtual Reality in the Twenty-first Century
August 29, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil’s keynote address delivered at the 2000 ACM SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans.… read more