RAY KURZWEIL - TRANSCENDENT MAN

A peek into his life, ambitions and his dream of achieving singularity

Years ago I heard Ray Kurzweil answering the question, “Does God exist?” to which he quickly replied, “Not yet!”

It shocked me and stuck in my mind, so much so that I quoted him frequently, hoping that sooner or later he would prove himself wrong.

This man became more and more famous over the intervening years.

Who is he? What does he hope to achieve?

Thankfully,

David Reed

uploaded this film, a 2009 documentary by American filmmaker Barry Ptolemy to Rumble recently and I was finally able to get a fuller understanding of Ray Kurzweil and his ambitions.

A screenshot from the documentary film, Transcendent Man https://rumble.com/v63m9jm-trandscendent-man.html

During the film, Colin Powell commented that it took all of an evening to read Ray Kurzweil’s Wikipedia page because he has achieved so much in his life. Here is a brief extract about his childhood:

Ray Kurzweil decided at age five that he wanted to be an inventor. As a young boy, he had an inventory of parts from various construction toys he had been given and old electronic gadgets he had collected from neighbours. In his youth, Kurzweil was an avid reader of science fiction. At age eight, nine, and ten, he read the entire Tom Swift Jr. series. At age seven or eight, he built a robotic puppet theatre and robotic game. He was involved with computers by age 12 (in 1960), when only a dozen computers existed in New York City, and built computing devices and statistical programs for the predecessor of Head Start. At 14, Kurzweil wrote a paper detailing his theory of the neocortex. His parents were involved with the arts, and he is quoted in the documentary Transcendent Man as saying that the household always discussed the future and technology.

Reading through the synopsis of his life is like a businessman’s who’s who, or an exercise in name-dropping. He has certainly crammed a great deal into his years, which he attributes to an unusual meditative technique:

For the past several decades, Kurzweil's most effective and common approach to doing creative work has been conducted during a lucid dreamlike state immediately preceding his waking state. He claims to have constructed inventions, solved algorithmic, business strategy, organizational, and interpersonal problems, and written speeches in this state.

Kurzweil's latest book, The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, was published in June 2024. He explained, "Some people find this frightening. But [The Singularity] is going to be beautiful and will expand our consciousness in ways we can barely imagine, like a person who is deaf hearing the most exquisite symphony for the first time."

Here he is talking about that book in an interview:

Called "the restless genius" by The Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes magazine, Kurzweil was selected as one of the top entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine, which described him as the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison." PBS selected him as one of the "sixteen revolutionaries who made America." Among Kurzweil’s many honours, he received the 2015 Technical Grammy Award for outstanding achievements in the field of music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, holds twenty-one honorary Doctorates, and honours from three U.S. presidents.

He has written five national best-selling books, including New York Times best sellers The Singularity Is Near (2005) and How To Create A Mind (2012). He is Co-Founder and Chancellor of Singularity University and a Director of Engineering at Google heading up a team developing machine intelligence and natural language understanding.

Born on February 12, 1948, Ray Kurzweil is now 76 and still working towards his dreams of a conscious computerised singularity and enhanced human longevity. Do you think that is possible?

ONWARDS INTO 2025!
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