Ray Kurzweil’s official title at Google is director of engineering, but we’re starting to suspect Larry keeps him around as a kind of science-fictional mascot for the programmers. Case in point: This Wired Q&A, in which he reminds everyone of his belief that one day soon, death will hold no dominion over technologists.

After chatting about Steve Jobs (fun fact, it’s actually impossible to get into the Wired offices without passing a brief… read more

Google has always been an artificial intelligence company, so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise that Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading scientists in the field, joined the search giant late last year. Nonetheless, the hiring raised some eyebrows, since Kurzweil is perhaps the most prominent proselytizer of “hard AI,” which argues that it is possible to create consciousness in an artificial being.

Add to this Google’s revelation that it is… read more

What will the far future look like? For actor Will Smith and his son Jaden, the next generation could mark a “tipping point” for the environment.

For futurist Ray Kurzweil, solar power is the solution to our energy ills. But for a look at the really far future, turn to Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors.

He’s already thinking about spreading out from Earth to… read more

With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time. Artificial intelligence is finally getting smart.

When Ray Kurzweil met with Google CEO Larry Page last July, he wasn’t looking for a job. A respected inventor who’s become a machine-intelligence futurist, Kurzweil wanted to discuss his upcoming book How to Create a Mind.

He told Page, who had read an early draft,… read more

Transcendence, a 2014 movie produced by Christopher Nolan, features events which are predicted by many scientists and futurists as likely to occur in reality within the first half of this century. The predictions featured include those subscribed to by Ray Kurzweil, Hugo de Garis, and Jason Silva.

Ray Kurzweil’s predictions: The technological singularity, often called simply the singularity, is most notably predicted by famed futurist Ray… read more

Inventor, author and director of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil lectured about how advancing technology impacts business, the economy and society.

Kurzweil presented a brief biography of himself, then dove right into his lecture, which highlighted the impacts of technology and how students can become successful inventing with technology today. Kurzweil first points out the significant changes in technology by pulling out his cell phone, which was strapped… read more

Ray Kurzweil plans to live forever. All power to him. Mr. Kurzweil’s contributions to mankind arguably have been so extraordinary that perhaps we owe it to him to provide him medical care in perpetuity.

Alternatively, perhaps he never plans to retire and/or has amassed a portfolio easily capable of supporting him in perpetuity unassisted by either Social Security or Medicare. In that case, no obvious public policy issues… read more

In 15 years, the famous inventor expects medical technology will add a year of life expectancy every year. Ray Kurzweil must encounter his share of interviewers whose first question is: What do you hope your obituary will say?

This is a trick question. Mr. Kurzweil famously hopes an obituary won’t be necessary. And in the event of his unexpected demise, he is widely reported to have signed… read more

Ray Kurzweil at Zellerbach Hall | Don’t know the name Ray Kurzweil? Give it a few years. The leader in technology innovation and praised prophet of the future will visit our campus to share his widely popular predictions for human advancement, robotics and when exactly Siri will become smarter than you. Not prime date-night material — for that, please refer back to “42.” [...]

The federal government wants to spend $100 million to unravel the complex of the human brain. But there’s someone else who’s been thinking a lot about the brain: The legendary inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Kurzweil has done pioneering work in optical character readers, flatbed scanners, electronic keyboards for musicians, and beyond. He has thought a lot about the ways technology and human beings are becoming more intertwined —… read more