In addition to these big questions, and in support of his assertions, Kurzweil reviews advances and potential developments in many areas, such as machines passing the Turing test, DNA computing, gene therapy, brain-cloud interfaces, and the universe as a colossal computer. He argues that we can prevent such scenarios from happening, given our own increasing complexity and expanding computational power. Kurzweil spends considerable time on the possibility of nano-robots and biomechanical beings we construct going haywire and bringing life on earth to an end.
Whereas acceptance of new technologies used to take decades, now many innovations find their way into our devices and gadgets within a couple of years, with further speed-up inevitable. We see a mind-boggling speed-up in new ideas and technologies entering our lives. Kurzweil uses "Singularity" to refer to a point in human history when the speed of change becomes so great as to make predictions impossible. Again, few would argue with this line of thought, except perhaps disagreeing with the speed of its realization. What made me as a techie somewhat uncomfortable is the inclusion of claims such as "exponential growth, with the exponent also growing exponentially." This just doesn't make sense.Īccording to Kurzweil, human-beings are on the verge of achieving immortality, if not within a biological frame that defies aging, because it is constantly repaired from the inside by nano-robots moving through the bloodstream, then through the persistence of one's ideas and life experiences in a mechanically constructed "host" (avatar). Similarly, the prediction that biological capabilities of humans will soon be augmented with nano-computers and nano-robots rings true. Few people would dispute Kurzweil's assertions that AI is getting more complex, and thus "smarter," at an accelerating rate. This is an important book, hence my 4-star rating, but gets annoying by unneeded elaborations and repetitions. (4) Book review: Kurzweil, Ray, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, unabridged 25-hour audiobook, read by George Wilson, Penguin Audio, 2019. Imagine the outrage that would have resulted from a news anchor using Jesus, the Ten Commandments, or some other religious symbol as background.
I consider this background inappropriate. (3) Please don't bring religious symbols to newsrooms: Over the past few days, PBS News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz has appeared with a poster that reads "Hussein" behind her. Couldn't you have commanded in the Bible that Christians not deny our visa applications? (2) Humor from Iran: Dear God: In the Quran, you tell us Muslims to travel as much as we can. Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near (see the last item below). Restoration work on a landmark Egyptian temple has unearthed colossal pair of Sphinxes. Three Iranian physicians wrote influential books that were translated into Latin for educational use: Ali-ibn Abbas Majusi, Ibn-Sina, and Mohammad-ibn Zakariya Razi. Cultural contrast: Raising children with musical instruments or guns! Taliban officials travel to Norway on a private jet, paid for by the Norwegian government. (1) Images of the day: This is the share of Iranian women from the country's nature and recreational resources: Watching with envy, as men enjoy them (#LetUsTalk). Lately, non-book items (such as political news, tech news, puzzles, oddities, trivia, humor, art, and music) have formed the vast majority of the entries.Įntries in each section appear in reverse chronological order.Īrchived blogs up to 2011 Blog Entries for 2022ĥ (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Given that the book introductions and reviews constituted a form of personal blog, I decided to title this page "Blog & Books," to also allow discussion of interesting topics unrelated to books from time to time. The rapid expansion of the list of books warranted devoting a separate page to it. This page was created in 2009 as an outgrowth of the section entitled "Books Read or Heard" in my personal page.