Publisher's Synopsis
"A fascinating exploration of our future, which raises the most profound philosophical questions." - Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens
Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near (Duckworth) and its vision of the future have been influential in spawning a worldwide movement with millions of followers, hundreds of books, major films (Her, Lucy, Ex Machina), and thousands of articles.
During the succeeding decade many of Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have been borne out, and their viability has become familiar to the public through such now commonplace concepts as AI, intelligent machines, and bioengineering.
In this entirely new book Kurzweil takes a fresh perspective on advances in the singularity - assessing the progress of many of his predictions and examining the novel advancements to a revolution in knowledge and an expansion of human potential.
Among the topics Kurzweil discusses: 'Rebuilding the World Atom by Atom', with devices like nanobots and radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; 'Reinventing Intelligence', by expanding biological capacity with nonbiological intelligence in the cloud; 'Life Is Getting Better', with declines in areas like poverty and violence and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing, which can be applied to everything from clothes to building materials to growing human organs; and 'The Promise and Peril' of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact unemployment and the safety of autonomous cars, and 'After Life' technology, which will reanimate people who have passed away through a combination of data and DNA.
