The 2009 documentary film, Transcendent Man, introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future where we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent — all within the next 30 years. A debut documentary from writer/director Barry Ptolemy.
Be sure to visit the film's official website for screening times and future release plans. A collection of reviews and film-related announcements can be found in this section.
Ray Kurzweil will appear on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday, June 16 and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, June 17 to promote the critically acclaimed documentary film Transcendent Man. Check network links for local show times.
Transcendent Man, by director Barry Ptolemy, focuses on the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil. The film is available on DVD in… read more
UPDATE | March 8, 8:00 p.m. EST: Due to breaking news on the situation in Libya, Charlie Rose decided to postpone airing the Kurzweil/Ptolemy interview. We’ll let you know when the interview is rescheduled to air. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Transcendent Man introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent…all within the next thirty years.
Visit the film’s official website here for more information, and for current screening times and digital downloads.
Transcendent Man, the film about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil by director Barry Ptolemy, is available today (May 24, 2011) on DVD in stores nationwide (Best Buy and Barnes and Noble), according to Ptolemaic Productions.
The DVD will also be available for order on Amazon.com, WalMart.com, BestBuy.com, and BarnesandNoble.com, and on… read more
Source: The Imaginary Foundation blog — February 18, 2011 | Linus Leibkörper
Transcendent Man is a remarkable new documentary about the life and ideas of futurist Ray Kurzweil (the subject of Time magazine’s cover article this week). Rumor has it that the director of The Imaginary Foundation was spotted at the film premiere in Los Angeles this Wednesday, but he slipped into a wormhole before anyone could snap a photo. A fan did, however, get a couple shots of Imaginarian Extraordinaire Jason… read more
The Huffington Post — March 9, 2011 | Jason Silva
Ray Kurzweil has become a pop culture phenomenon. The Singularity thesis has gone mainstream, and for those who still have any doubts, look no farther than the recent Time Magazine cover story, “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal.” Barry Ptolemy’s film, Transcendent Man, is the absolute best cinematic exploration of Ray Kurzweil and his paradigm shifting ideas. If you didn’t have the patience to read Singularity… read more
Screening details: Tickets are still available for the upcoming Los Angeles screening of Transcendent Man, at the Laemmle Royal Theater on February 16 and February 17, 2011.
Click here for tickets to the February 16, 2011 screening, at 8:00pm, followed by a Q&A with director Barry Ptolemy and Ray Kurzweil.
Click here for tickets to the February 17, 2011 screening, at 8:00pm, followed by a… read more
Source: The Plain Dealer — May 22, 2011 | Chris Ball
When will computers attain consciousness and surpass humans? Genius inventor Ray Kurzweil calls this event the Singularity, and he pinpoints it at 2029. In this startling 2009 biodoc, he shares his theories about technology’s exponential acceleration.
Critics call him a crackpot, while he calmly makes his predictions based on past events. Don’t be scared, he urges, just be ready to become bionic or risk being left behind. [...]
Source: LAist — February 8, 2011 | Katherine Peach
It’s those times when all meat starts to taste like chicken and the rum and Coke you ordered tastes like Froot Loops, that the notion there is just a glitch in the Matrix starts to seem like a possibility. The sci-fi scenario of robots running amok is not just a thing for the books, according to the theory of singularity, and a documentary called the Transcendent Man.… read more
Source: Ain't It Cool News — May 24, 2011 | Harry Knowles
Hey folks, Harry here with a new DVD column and things are a bit different this week with some of the titles, and I’m betting that will at least continue with next week’s amazing series of titles. I think you’ll enjoy some of the surprises this week.
Ray Kurzweil is an interesting as hell fella. Imagine a practical William Gibson or Phillip K Dick. Now, he’s technically… read more
Transcendent Man, a documentary film on the life and controversial ideas of Ray Kurzweil, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 25, 2009.
Filmmakers Barry and Felicia Ptolemy (Ptolemaic Productions) documented Kurzweil’s life for two years in 25 cities in five countries, as he explored the social and philosophical implications of the coming profound changes and the potential threats they pose to human civilization in presentations and dialogues with 22 noted luminaries such as Colin Powell, Peter Diamandis, Dean Kamen, William Shatner, Stevie Wonder, and Kevin Warwick.… read more
Source: Variety — November 18, 2009 | Andrew Barker
A well-made, insightful documentary that asks some hard questions while leaving just as many unanswered, Transcendent Man is an intriguing study of techno-prophet Ray Kurzweil. Helmer Barry Ptolemy has a fascinating subject in Kurzweil and his expansive theories, and this film — a natural for healthy homevideo release and cable — should only increase his visibility (and speaking fees). Still, one wishes it weren’t so transparently on his side.… read more
Source: Science Progress — March 17, 2011 | Lisbeth Kaufman
Some dismiss Ray Kurzweil as a quack. His predictions of a future sound like plotlines from the nuttiest sci-fi films. According to Kurzweil’s theories, by around 2029 information technology will become more sophisticated than the human brain, and by 2045 what he calls “the Singularity” will occur — information technology will have advanced to the point at which people can become immortal by downloading their consciousness onto nanobots, which… read more
Andrew Breitbart Presents: Big Hollywood — July 8, 2011 | David Swindle
Consider Transcendent Man, the recent documentary about inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. The film is based on his 2005 book The Singularity is Near and builds on his past 20 years of accurate predictions of technological growth. This is the reality we forget: technology is constantly getting twice as powerful, half as expensive, and much smaller.
And the speed of this doubling
Source: Scientific American — February 15, 2011 | John Rennie
A documentary about Ray Kurzweil’s belief that technology could conquer mortality reveals the futurist’s emotional life but fails to question his bold claims. Against a swirling montage of cosmic birth and destruction, and newsreel-style stills from his personal history, the celebrated inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil sits in silhouette, contemplating death. He broods over mortality’s toll in waste and pain, and the hopelessness and loss that people must experience