The Virtual Village
August 6, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
How technology quietly topples governments, written for “The Futurecast,” a monthly column in the Library Journal.… read more
Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | A-Z
The Web Within Us: Minds and Machines Become One.
February 21, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil’s vision for the 21st century and beyond includes reverse-engineering the human brain and non-biological intelligences.… read more
Top KurzweilAI.net News of 2001
January 21, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil, Amara D. Angelica
In its first year of operation, KurzweilAI.net has chronicled the notable news stories on accelerating intelligence. We’ve selected here the most important of those stories to document the key breakthroughs for 2001 in continued exponential growth of computation, communication, and other information-based technologies; comparable acceleration in efforts to reverse-engineer the human brain and other sources of the templates of intelligence; similar growth in our understanding of the information basis of biological processes; and the contributions of nanotechnology.… read more
Top KurzweilAI.net News of 2002
February 6, 2003 by Ray Kurzweil, Amara D. Angelica
In its second year of operation, 2002, KurzweilAI.net continued to chronicle the most notable news stories on accelerating intelligence. We offer here our overview of the dramatic progress that the past year has brought. Following that, we selected just over half of the 823 news stories posted in 2002 to document key breakthroughs in the continued exponential growth of increasingly diverse information-based technologies; deepening understanding of the information basis of biological processes; the early contributions of nanotechnology, and a multiplicity of related topics.… read more
Tribute to Michael Dertouzos (1936 — 2001)
August 30, 2001 by Ray Kurzweil
In memory of Michael Dertouzos, 1936 — 2001.… read more
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