The Singularity Is Near
For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
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What Hacker News says
- I'd say similar stuff, maybe The Moral Animal more for me, how things like morality also come from evolution.
Also the Singularity stuff though I'm not sure how to pick an individual book - maybe Singularity Is Near by Kurzweil and Robot by Moravec. About the future after we get past the propagation vector stuff.
- Really not that far off in the grand scheme of things IMO.
Ray Kurzweil was even more on the money in his 2006 book "The singularity is near". I remember reading some of the stuff in there that is now happening. From the top of my head he predicted 2030 for human-level AI hardware and software that could be bought for 1000 USD by anyone. I feel he's going to be very close.
- - The Incerto by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. My entire way of life, my persuits, career choices, health choices, life choices are based on this.
- Homo Ludens by Johan Huzinga (The highest calling a human can partipate in is play). My goal in life is to have has much play time as possible, it is all I am aiming for right now. Probably How I will measure how my successful my life was (how much did I play?)
- Adam Curtis Documentaries (Power & how it shapes societys). Opened my eyes to what exactly political struggle is. I don't see politics the same way again after watching those documentaries. I rewatch one every few months. There is so muc to learn from them.
- The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. Got me to start taking computers seriously.
- Hacker News. This is the highest quality social community that I am part of. I learned so much from here. And it feels like the only place where I can meet and have a conversation with like minded people. I genuinely feel like I have an edge in life over other people just by being part of the HN community.
- The singularity is near is a great book. Hilarious that you read that for the second time and then got out and saw chat gpt!
I love kurzweil but his estimates of timeline are often pretty over optimistic, so I'd be really wondering.
- Ray Kurzweil has laid out a view on the future that has always been interesting and is feeling increasingly relevant. Incredibly, his prediction for AGI in 2029 seems... conservative? It's too bad this article refers to him as a "former Google engineer" and only bothers to cite a Youtuber talking about his books. He's a fascinating character, has been a prescient futurist for many decades, and his books are very readable - check them out! His big 3 are The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and The Singularity is Near. The last one is the most recent and popular, and is what I'd point people towards.
- Have you read The Singularity is Near?
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