Tribute to Michael Dertouzos (1936 — 2001)
August 30, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
In memory of Michael Dertouzos, 1936 — 2001.… read more
Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-ZBy Author | A-Z
Understanding the Accelerating Rate of Change
May 2, 2003 by Ray Kurzweil, Chris Meyer
We’re entering an age of acceleration. The models underlying society at every level, which are largely based on a linear model of change, are going to have to be redefined. Because of the explosive power of exponential growth, the 21st century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today’s rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace.… read more
We Are Becoming Cyborgs
March 15, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
The union of human and machine is well on its way. Almost every part of the body can already be enhanced or replaced, even some of our brain functions. Subminiature drug delivery systems can now precisely target tumors or individual cells. Within two to three decades, our brains will have been “reverse-engineered”: nanobots will give us full-immersion virtual reality and direct brain connection with the Internet. Soon after, we will vastly expand our intellect as we merge our biological brains with non-biological intelligence.… read more
What Have We Learned a Year After NASDAQ Hit 5,000?
January 21, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
The current recession reflects failure to develop realistic models of the pace at which new information-based technologies emerge and the overall acceleration of the flow of information. But in the longer-range view, recessions and recoveries reflect a relatively minor variability compared to the far more important trend of the underlying exponential growth of the economy.… read more
What the Future Will Bring
June 15, 2005 by Ray Kurzweil
“Follow your passion,” Ray Kurzweil advised graduates in a commencement address on May 21 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, one of the nation’s earliest technological universities. “Creating knowledge is what will be most exciting in life. To create knowledge you have to have passion, so find a challenge that you can be passionate about and you can find the ideas to overcome that challenge.” Kurzweil also described the three great coming revolutions-genetics, nanotechnology and robotics-and their implications for our lives ahead.… read more
Will My PC Be Smarter Than I Am?
November 9, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
Once we learn how to map the brain and make computers fast enough to simulate it, all bets are off.… read more
Wolfram and Kurzweil Roundtable Discussion
February 24, 2006 by Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Wolfram
“The most dramatic possibility is the universe started from a simple initial condition that had some simple geometrical symmetry. It might be the case that if we turn our telescope off to the west, and look at the configuration of the universe in the west, it might be identical to the configuration of the universe in the east [...]“… read more
Excerpts from “One Half of a Manifesto”
July 30, 2001 by Jaron Lanier
Does the optimism of technologists blur the question of quantitative improvements in hardware versus a lack of qualititative improvements in software? Do they point the way towards an eschatological cataclysm in which doom is imminent?… read more
Postscript Re: Ray Kurzweil
July 30, 2001 by Jaron Lanier
This postscript to his One Half of a Manifesto is a further discussion and criticism of exponential trends. Do these trends exist as predictive models, or are we playing connect-the-dots based upon an arbitrary selection of milestones and paradigm shifts?… read more
The Central Metaphor of Everything?
December 4, 2001 by Jaron Lanier
Jaron Lanier’s Edge article takes a skeptical look at Moore’s Law and its application to trends outside of computer hardware. Will computers become smarter than us in twenty years? Is the computational metaphor actually impeding progress?… read more
Man-Computer Symbiosis
December 11, 2001 by J.C.R. Licklider
Written in 1960, this essay foresaw the growing dependence upon computers for more and more intelligent functions, and an age of human/computer interdependence in which the distinction between the two becomes increasingly blurred.… read more