Source: The Washington Post — June 7, 2013 | Vivek Wadhwa
Google has a one-up on my iPhone. It reads my emails before I do and knows what I am thinking by analyzing what I search for on the Internet and which Web sites I visit. It “knows” what other people think about me.
If my friend and noted futurist Ray Kurzweil succeeds in his mission at Google, it will also understand my wants and needs. It… read more
Source: The Economist — March 10, 2011
Can machines surpass humans in intelligence? People were shocked in 1997 when IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat Garry Kasparov, a Russian grandmaster, at chess. But winning a board game is a trivial task compared with understanding the complexities and idiosyncrasies of human speech. The company has now developed Watson, a supercomputer it thinks is capable of understanding “natural language”.
To put this claim to the test, IBM arranged for… read more
Source: Cambridge Healthtech Institute — May 13, 2013 | Kevin Davies, PhD
Rather than reflect on the ups and downs of the past 11 years, let me simply lay out some of my most vivid memories from my perch at Bio-IT World:
Best Keynote: Lander in 2002? Ray Kurzweil? Stephen Wolfram? Venter, Collins, Berners-Lee? I can’t pick. But I would give special commendation to BioTeam cofounder Chris Dagdigian’s annual unofficial fourth keynote, “Trends from the Trenches.” [...]
Source: 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: The Wall Street Journal — February 25, 2012 | Matt Ridley
Dematerialization is one of the reasons that Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler give for the future’s being “better than you think” in their new book, Abundance. Mr. Diamandis founded the X Prizes, which handsomely reward those who reach certain far-minded goals in technology, medicine, energy and ecology.
As well as the X Prizes, Mr. Diamandis is cofounder and chairman of Singularity University, where the futurist Ray… read more
Source: The New York Times — Jun 3, 2008 | John Tierney
Before we get to Ray Kurzweil’s plan for upgrading the “suboptimal software” in your brain, let me pass on some of the cheery news he brought to the World Science Festival last week in New York.
Do you have trouble sticking to a diet? Have patience. Within 10 years, Dr. Kurzweil explained, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want without gaining weight.
Worried… read more
Source: Grasshopper Group LLC — January 26, 2011 | Grasshopper Group LLC
Described by Forbes magazine as “the ultimate thinking machine”, American author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil published volumes of insightful predictions about the technology-driven future that we are currently living in.
Here, we explore which of his major forecasts came to fruition and what he sees in store for our destiny beyond.
Source: PhysOrg — December 1, 2011 | Stuart Mason Dambrot
In his post-presentation press conference, Kurzweil was asked about the role of our evolutionarily-determined biological drives — and thereby motivation and emotion — as minds merge with machines and AI equals or surpasses human levels. Kurzweil noted that we have a remarkable ability to sublimate our drives, and we do so largely into innovation.
Since he sees the purpose of technology as the transcendence of our biological limitations, one… read more
Source: NPR's On the Media — April 3, 2009 | Brooke Gladstone
“Ray Kurzweil is a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence…. He’s an award-winning science and engine, a millionaire several times over because of his inventions… He predicted, far in advance, that the Soviet Union would crumble, that a computer would beat a human at chess and that a computer communications network would span the earth. He even predicted when…. Bill Gates has called him the best in the world at predicting the future…… read more
Source: BusinessWeek — June 29, 2000 | Alex Salkever
The visionary and author tells PC Expo-goers to expect mind-shattering, exponential development in computing and other tech fields and includes advice for Alan Greenspan. Ray Kurzweil’s recent book The Age of Spiritual Machines looked far into the future, when electronic devices may think, act, and even feel emotions the way humans do. And true to form, the technologist and renowned visionary cut a wide swath across history in a Thursday… read more
