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Liked It “Really exiting stuff. Very technical. Some of the information need to be read several times to understand it.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Ignorance is bliss, but I'd rather know what's coming :-)”
Rafe F wrote this review 10 hours ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Uses history to show exponential growth in performance/price of computers and argues the day is near (2029) when computers will be more intelligent than human brains. Uses that as a jumping off point to where non-biological intelligence supercedes biological. Humans become enhanced by this intelligence and the universe’s destiny is to be consolidated into computing power.”
Jim G wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Lots of charts, and according to Kurzweil all pointing to one fact: The rate of human progress is accelerating at exponential rates, and has been since we first crawled out of the ocean. The possibilities are fascinating and exciting to contemplate as advances in biology, nanotech, and artificial intelligence race forward. Will we even recognize ourselves in 40 years?”
T.R.M. wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Really exiting stuff. Very technical. Some of the information need to be read several times to understand it.”
Ken S wrote this review Sunday, September 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Kurzweil is not for everyone. He is clearly a brilliant individual who has the pedigree to make the claims he does about life in the future. If he is guilty of anything, it is getting too technical (his mathematical explanations will have your head spinning) and maybe too hopeful. Kurzweil will have you believing the world is on course to be a technological Nirvana, and soon too.
Mr. L wrote this review Saturday, July 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Here's why Kurzweil is worth reading:
He'll have you rethinking what human means -as if it isn't complicated enough.
Living forever
The promise of machines
His well-supported timeline of the progression of technology and where it's likely to go
Nanotechnology
His hypothetical dialogues between the same individual from different point in time -the present, future, and far future.
He's a nice break from the doom and gloom of most print and news today.
”
“An account of the near future (if such a thing is possible) that rings a deep bell of truth. A shame he does not tackle the topic of cryonics, that would be of use for those of us too old to hope to be alive in the latter half of the 21st century unless the biotech revolution makes the progress Kurzweil forsees in the coming 2 decades. Probably one of the more important books of the 1st decade of the new millennium, at least it seems so now.”
Cryonica wrote this review Sunday, May 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Good presentation of the exponential speed of technological improvements and substantial arguments supporting the thesis that the singularity is near. The arguments regarding immortality are not nearly as compelling”
Potch wrote this review Wednesday, April 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Delivers eye-popping predictions of the 21st century! With emphasis on the next three decades, Kurzweil guides through a number of things that we'll see, such as; successfully reverse engineering the human brain, artificial intelligence, nonbiological intelligence, time travel and wormholes, computation, nanotechnology, machine rights, immortality and reverse aging, virtual reality, cyborgs and a nonbiological human race.
ryan wrote this review Wednesday, January 7 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
While Kurzweil's thoroughly humanistic world view is the foundation of his forecast, he maintained credibility with me... While it seemed to me he may be too optimistic with his predictions of when these things will come to pass, I believe what he is predicting is entirely accurate. And its scarier than the scariest ghost story ever.”
