But one man at Google definitely has a specific vision. As Greg Satell at Forbes wrote, “In many ways, the Google-NASA partnership represents a new Manhattan Project, but instead of the aim being a nuclear explosion, the goal is to simulate the human brain, a feat that Google’s Director of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, believes will be completed before the end of the next decade.”

Kurzweil is one of… read more

The singularity is (almost) here: Ray Kurzweil, Google’s current engineering director, has written extensively about the “singularity,” the point where mankind and computers merge. Although Google Glass is not the singularity, it really does bring us closer to that (fateful, terrifying, dreaded, utopian, pick an adjective) day.

I do not mean to be overly optimistic in thinking about the potential of Google Glass. It will have positive benefits… read more

In his book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that computers will be as smart as humans by 2029, and that by 2045, “computers will be billions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence,” Kurzweil wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Singularity, for those mere mortals who are unaware, is the theoretical emergence of a super-intelligence through technological means. First proposed… read more

Along with a lyrical focus inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near, which the band had been reading before they made the album, Ra Ra Riot incorporated more keyboards and synthesizers into many of the songs on Beta Love. This new technology-informed attitude represents a necessary change for a band known mostly for one thing.

The keyboards stabbing at Beta Love opener “Dance With Me” set the tone for… read more

Up on the Sun: I understand the new album, Beta Love, is informed by thoughts on the nature and evolution of technology and humanity.

Wes Miles: Yeah, a lot of it comes from a book that Matt [Santos, bassist] started reading first when we were recording The Orchard, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near.

At that point, we started talking more about it and thinking about what… read more

More positively, breakthroughs in biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology that will create or clone humans who live virtually forever, if they can afford and endure it. Humans who are more machine than human, as Ray Kurzweil explores in his book The Singularity Is Near.

Machines that outthink, outlive, and outmaneuver us at every turn. Siri, anyone? And other events too bizarre to even imagine, but

… read more

We currently fight heart disease with drugs that reduce cholesterol buildup; but with new technologies predicted for the 2020s, we will simply grow new veins or hearts where necessary. In fact, nearly all of our organs, bones, muscles, hair, and skin can be replaced as these new procedures become available.

Ray Kurzweil, in his best-selling book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, confirmed that we… read more

Text-to-voice technology has a long history. The famed technologist Ray Kurzweil created an early reading software product in 1976, which in 1996 led to the founding of Kurzweil Educational Systems, a leading maker of reading software for PCs and Macs.

However, the Kurzweil software costs as much as $1,500 a seat, while some of the other PC-based text-to-speech products cost $50 to $70, Chen said. “We charge… read more

Ersatz is the perfect tool for those interested in making more accurate predictions on highly complex time-series datasets. This product is essential for just about any company where the accuracy of predictions makes a big difference to the bottom line.

As far as competitive landscape, Google is perhaps the most important player in this developing market. They already use deep learning techniques for voice recognition in… read more