Kurzweil on Singularity in Bay Area This Week

Forgive the shameless plugs for client Ray Kurzweil lately, but he's been 'in the news' quite a bit lately due to his upcoming book Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, and we're getting close to release date: September 26.

He's speaking in the Bay Area this week at two venues:

Steve Jurvetson will introduce Ray at the next SD Forum event in Palo Alto on Thursday, September 22, starting at 6 pm with a book signing following the event at 8:30 pm. It will be held at SAP America, Building D, 3410 Hillview Avenue in Palo Alto, CA 94304. You can register here.

On Friday, September 23 in San Francisco starting at 7 pm, Stewart Brand will introduce Ray at the next LONG NOW event, which will be held at the Herbst Theater, in the Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister in San Francisco. Info on how to attend can be found here.

More about the book and Ray’s talks:

The Singularity, almost an article of faith in techie circles, is the point at which machine intelligence outstrips human brainpower. Kurzweil emphasizes the point that progress in the computer field moves at exponential rates and that the raw power of information technologies is doubling annually. This power increase, combined with the predicted growth of nanotechnology-robots the size of red blood cells inserted into the body-will make possible, within two decades, complete scanning of the human brain. By then, computer hardware should be capable of running accurate software models of human intelligence.

Tag: Ray Kurzweil

By the end of the 2020s, Kurzweil believes, a genuine synthesis of the strengths of human and machine intelligence becomes possible: pattern recognition and inference on the human side, large memory with instant recall and easy data-sharing on the machine side. Freed from the built-in limitations of the brain, machine intelligence will then be able to use nanotechnological design to far exceed human intelligence. But at the same time, nanotechnological implants can be used to augment human brains, creating a hybrid intelligence unlike anything previously known.

Ultimately, Kurzweil predicts, the predominant component of human intelligence will be non-biological, and more of our experiences will take place in virtual reality than in the physical world. Human-machine intelligence will saturate the immediate vicinity of the Earth, and eventually grow to fill the universe. Kurzweil backs his predictions with numerous citations of numerous other experts.

This merging is the essence of the Singularity, an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity. In this new world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality.

We will be able to assume different bodies and take on a range of personae at will. In practical terms, human aging and illness will be reversed; pollution will be stopped; world hunger and poverty will be solved. Nanotechnology will make it possible to create virtually any physical product using inexpensive information processes and will ultimately turn even death into a soluble problem.

Below are a few links to media and blog interest about Ray and Singularity:

http://instapundit.com/archives/025289.php and http://www.instapundit.com/#024539
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0814sarewitz.html
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/06/ray_kurzweils_n.html
http://www.techcentralstation.com/081505C.html
http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2005/0815/030.html
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2005/08/20050801_2.asp
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945019.htm

Tag: Ray Kurzweil