Ray Kurzweil and the Coming Singularity

Posted on March 13, 2006

Author Ray Kurzweil discusses his new book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Viking), with the Paramus Post. In the inteview, Kurzeil talks about how the future of humanity will be quite different than the way things are today.

This computer scientist, inventor and visionary foresees, in just a few decades, a society that is infinitely smarter and resilient, courtesy of "nanobots," robots about the size of blood cells that will do everything from reverse aging to vastly extend intelligence. Nanotechnology already is here, providing coatings on clothing for stain-resistant fibers and helping to deliver drugs to targeted tissues.

For Kurzweil, who has been enamored with artificial intelligence for decades (and multiple books), the rest is just a matter of time. "We will gain power over our fates," he writes. "Our mortality will be in our hands. We will be able to live as long as we want (a subtly different statement from saying we will live forever)."

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The higher power for Singularitarians like himself is intelligence. "In my mind, knowledge is of primary value," he says. "We don't need death to give life meaning. We can give life meaning by expanding knowledge." Music is knowledge, he continues. So is art, and science, and awareness of each other and ourselves. He is convinced that as humanity becomes wiser, we will become more loving. "My vision's not a utopian one, but I do think we'll have better knowledge and means to overcome some of our more-primitive inclinations."

We're ready for nanobots, although we are somewhat worried that they're going to escape -- like they did during Wesley Crusher's ill-fated science experiment on that Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

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