The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come

Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public.

In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.

The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Futurism, Philosophy, Audiobook

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 2024

About the author

Ray Kurzweil is a world class inventor, thinker, and futurist, with a thirty-five-year track record of accurate predictions. He has been a leading developer in artificial intelligence for 61 years – longer than any other living person. He was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizer, music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software. Ray received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievement in music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has written five best-selling books including The Singularity Is Near and How To Create A Mind, both New York Times best sellers, and Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, winner of multiple young adult fiction awards. His forthcoming book, The Singularity Is Nearer, will be released June 25, 2024. He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google.

Reviews

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book for those of us who are pessimistic about the future. Kurzweil's excitement is contagious.

While it remains to be seen if AI brings about the utopia he predicts, and I'm not so certain it will, this was still great fun to read and gave my brain a little break from worrying incessantly over everything negative that might happen (and probably won't).

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kurzweil is no longer generating any ideas. Repetitive rehashings of thoughts beaten to death. His original ‘The Singularity is Near’ is still a classic banger and obligatory reading (to be in the present and understand what is going on right now - the only reasonable position is to be a singularitarian, imho 😉), yet this should’ve just been an addition chapter to a new edition of that book.

I’m afraid he won’t make it to the singularity himself though, judging by the fact that his mind seems to have died, symbolically, that he is in the downturn of life. His soul does not generate, it clings.

Joking aside, unless the law of accelerating returns is integrated into your worldview you very likely have no idea what is going on and your opinions should be automatically disregarded and ignored.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know the future, read Ray Kurzweil’s book. I appreciate his optimistic view and the way he supports his theories with historical trends and data references. I am generally hopeful about the immense impacts of humanity merging with AI in the next 5-10 years, but also would have liked the book to give more consideration for the significant psychological and societal impacts this will bring. The author is a technologist so I didn’t really expect much discussion of those aspects of the emerging epoch we will experience in our lifetime. What an amazing time to be alive!

I would have also liked to see more detail on reclamation and recycling advances since it’s my belief that once we have unlimited access to energy, 3D printing, and molecular level reclamation, money will go away and people will live for new pursuits beyond basic needs and wants. The author covers the future of abundant energy and the path of 3D printing in manufacturing, housing, and healthcare, but I think there is much to explore on technologies that can break down material waste to reclaim constituent elements. I see that piece as a leg in the triangle that will bring socioeconomic equality to every person. Reclamation seems to be further behind other technologies, most likely due to the poor cost benefit of doing this currently.

I’d also be interested in hearing more about the clear parallel path genetic engineering via CRISPR is now taking in the course of our evolution, especially with assistance from AI. As we learn which genes drive which diseases, capabilities, and behaviors, humanity will control its own evolution. This profound change of once evolving from natural genetic mutations to now having AI project billions of genetic permutations will allow humanity to adopt its own path. This ability is going to have enormous physiological, moral, and societal impacts. Who will we become? What will humanity look like?

I recommend this book to anyone interested in these topics.

[Marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of techno-utopian idealism and speculation, with very little attention to potential downsides. Overall not nearly as interesting as I had hoped, and much of it was information people will already be acquainted with if they've been following recent trends in AI, etc.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kurzweil’s futurism is getting old like him and instead of reckoning with his mortality yet again he continues singing his age old song of singularity is near(er). Hope he won’t be surprised to see the Grim Reaper instead of Borg or Terminator telling him “Resistance is futile!” :) He is not the only techno utopian selling superintelligence but Kurzweil is betting higher with his “law” of accelerating returns in neuro-nano-bots and other biogenetic tech and AGI curing all disease and issues. This inception is so deep in the uncanny silicon valley not sure what can wake tech bros from their dreams before they convert us all uploading our brain scans to metaverse expecting eternal lives.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If one bothers to read Malthus’s essay on population, one discovers something quite surprising - beside the arithmetic increase in food vs. the geometric increase in population. That is Malthus’s dismissal of utopians, rationalists, and believers in the exponential progress of sciences - like Goodwin and Condorcet. Basically, these guys postulated that due to the rapid and imminent progress of science, all the diseases and even death will be abolished soon. The sciences indeed expanded and improved our lives - but we still have plenty of diseases around to cripple us and we rarely live past 100 years. It is funny how 250 years later we hear exactly the same story from someone like Kurzweil - with the exponential progress in technology that leads to singularity, and along with this arrival the elimination of all diseases and eventually death. Kurzweil’s story starts with the Big Bang and ends with the Singularity; while this story is nothing else but the exponential growth of the processing power and of the amount of information.

I read this book mainly to see how Kurzweil approaches the new wave of AI in the form of LLMs and what is left of his original prophecies (and hoping to see him acknowledging some failed prophecies). Yes, LLMs passed or soon will pass the Turing test; but in the end they produced no new knowledge beyond the knowledge already existing in the data they were trained on. Even AI veterans start to see these LLMs as the wrong approach and as a dead end for AI. Interesting enough, the fact that these LLM are just Language Models - and not at all attempts at Intelligence, Reason, or even Logic Models - seem not to bother anyone who advocates them as the path towards SuperIntelligence. Instead of a fierce and independent AI that starts to improve itself - we just got a colorful, noisy, annoying, and innocent collection of stochastic parrots.

These days the “tech bros” retained the profits and the access to power, but left the prophetic aspect to their political bedfellows - that is to the fundamentalist Christians. Science most likely will regress in the near future and the popular hope of eternal life is the same as the ancient one - that is the one granted by Jesus to his followers on his second return. Instead of ingesting a ridiculous amount of supplements, waiting for the army of nanobots to arrive and fix his body, and prohecizing near and nearer singularities - Kurzweil may better convert to Christianity and get his most wished eternal life as a side bonus.

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was wondering what approach Kurzweil will use for this book.
a. just update what he has written in "The Singularity is Near" (which was written 20 years ago)
b. re-assess the prior book & self-reflect (on where he has been right/wrong)
c. only add new thoughts and assume the readers have read "The Singularity is Near"
d. something completely different?

In fact, it's a bit of everything.

Yes, you can read this one completely independently (w/o reading the 1st one), but Kurzweil occasionally refers to "... Near". He makes no explicit comments on where he was right & wrong or where the technological progress has surprised him. He's more specific about the dates (when he expects things to happen) & he has also limited the scope (range of topics/disciplines he explores).

There's a chapter dedicated to intelligence, but there's very little new content here, even keeping in mind the recent progress - or maybe I'm biased because everyone writes about it, and Kurzweil's comments do not really stand out here.

The chapter on longevity is interesting (esp. the mental model that splits future advancements into stages), and the best part is the one on identity. However, I was surprised Kurzweil avoided any speculation about sociological consequences or "virtual immortality", e.g., how will evolve our future need to have offspring, is the memory the same as identity, and can these two be split - if so, what will be the outcomes, etc. Btw. some of the most daring hypotheses are in this exact chapter (e.g.: the first person to live >1000 years is most likely already born).

The chapter on the future of jobs isn't really very surprising, and neither is the one on "perils" - it seems too rushed and even shallow.

"... Nearer" is a nice addendum to "... Near", but not a mus read. I didn't make as many notes as before, and even if it provided some food for thought it's mostly unfinished thoughts/triggers for consideration that is NOT present in the book. It felt like Kurzweil had the need to "update" "... Near" but he didn't have enough good material to do that well.

P.S. I enjoyed the dialogues from the previous book (conversation with people set in a given moment of time) - they were witty, interesting, thought-provoking. In "... Nearer" there's just one dialogue with Cassandra as a final chapter and it's not nearly as good.

[Alyssha Maes · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst reading experience of my life!

Ray I hope after you die your cryonics chamber falls into the ocean and you become the laughing stock of the entire AI industry 😘

- poorly argued predictions or really predictions that were presented as forgone conclusions or facts without any actually directly correlated factual support
- truly horrific dystopian predictions for the future in my opinion and in the opinion of everyone I’ve talked to about this
- if AI doesn’t get to a point where it’s smart enough to observe phenomena, identify issues, and propose and help implement practical solutions then this whole book is absolutely useless and that’s a huge if to be hinging on
- even if that all happens, Kurzweil assumes everyone wants the same things in life as him (to live forever as a tech enhanced superhuman that interacts primarily virtually) and anyone who disagrees must be mentally ill because his ideal life is the one true ideal life like come on have you talked to an average American this decade????
- risks are covered in the two shortest chapters and just waved away with the “we’ve always been fine before so this will probably be fine too idk it’s worth the risk” argument that is NOT COMFORTING
- instead of spending time backing up his arguments more or proposing practical applications and risk mitigations, he drones on forevvvveeeerrrr about the history of the world and consciousness philosophy like first of all stay in your lane second of all wtf is the scope of this book third of all you’re bad at writing compelling literature just stick to Ted talks if you can’t hang in long form written media
- citations are thrown everywhereeee and it looks really official and impressive until you realize some of them are just random YouTube videos like he must assume no one is bothering to check his sources
- he LOVES to talk up his buddies, including Dean Kamen who provided a glowing review for the dust jacket and coincidentally his little water filter invention is described in the book as the solution to global drinking water problems well GUESS WHAT that was invented over 10 years ago and there’s only like 150 that were every distributed but in return Coca Cola coerced Kamen into inventing the freestyle pop machines so at least I can get creme soda at the movie theater now

I could go on but reading this book was so spiritually draining that I can’t continue at the moment

Just to make it clear once again, Ray Kurzweil if you have no haters then I’m dead

[Noone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't spent a whole lot of time with the book because I expected something actually insightful but it's just the general futurism drivel you can find everywhere nowadays.

It keeps on going on random tangents about the history of the universe and biology and evolution but never goes into any of it beyond a basic popscience level.
There is lots of vague speculation about how neural networks and brains are similar and why they will eventually be fused in some way, with nanobots of course.

I have skimmed through the entire thing and regardless of where I start it's some tired futurism clichée. Either its about how progress has beein accelerating, how nano-technology will change everything, how computers are getting faster, or how GPT4 is solving language and therefore is the holy grail of intelligence. There are probably lots of others in here but those are the ones that came to mind spontanously. I should count the number of time the word "nano" appears in here. It's probably hilarious but I only have the audiobook.

I was recommended this book because I expressed views that we need to expand the human brain in some way because there is no way of developing agentic AI beyond our own inteligence safely, which necessarily implies that we need to be able to keep up somehow, therefore increasing our own capabilities however possible.
So I think I might actually agree with some of the conclusions this book comes to but it would take me 8 hours of listening to AI futurism buzzwords to get there.

I personally think most people including this author tend to vastly overestimate the speed at which technological progress will happen in terms of the whole singularity concept. The speed of progress is accelerating and overall has been accelerating for a long time but I don't think we are anywhere near the point where we will experience any sort of exponential runaway effect. The real world just doesn't work that way. Doing things in the real world take a long time and I don't think there are any indicators that this will change. Building a big building takes exactly as long as it did 50 years ago. It might (arguably) be a better building nowadays, but its not going to be built faster. I think this is a similar logical fallacy as the famous "9 women producing a child in one month".

Maybe this book is written in this obnoxiously wise and clever way because that is what sells and that is the audience it is meant for. Maybe, after it gets all this preamble of explaining and motivating this all out of the way, it eventually gets to some actually interesting points about how societies and governments can deal with the pretty drastic changes that are going to happen fairly soon with and without a technological singularity. But I just don't have the patience to look for this.

How do you build a society around a world in which anyone can create biological weapons in their kitchen for example. I really believe these problems might be solvable but I couldn't find anything actionable in here. It's just talking about how medicine will be amazing in the future.
The same goes for many other of the points it makes. It all rings hollow to me.
If this book was written 20 years ago I would be really impressed but its not. Most of the insights I could find in this book are more or less just common knowledge nowadays.

This book is kind of like string theory. It paints a pretty picture but it doesn't actually provide anything useful or actionable.
It reads like just the world-building of a sci-fi book without the actual story.

I guess you could read it as an optimistic and non-technical introduction into the AI future, whenever it will happen, and I am the wrong audience entirely.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re curious about AI, psychology, and even philosophy, this is THEE book. For once, it’s also a science book that doesn’t spell out the doom of the entire human race (so bonus points for that) but actually lays out the positive trends that the news outlets don’t share since it’d elicit a low emotional response from the audience aka less revenue. It discusses our approach to the Turing test where an AI entity will be indistinguishable from a human and how that can significantly improve the quality of life. For my fellow nerds, I cannot recommend this enough.

[Marctar]

I read a preprint, but withholding my review and rating until the book's published.

[Gergo Kiss]

Will this book be published in a post-AGI world? I have the sense it is already too late for informing us about the upcoming urgency.

[Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“That is, our multilayered neocortices give us more capacity for abstract thought than creatures with simpler cortices. And when humans are able to connect to our Neo-cortices directly to cloud-based computation, we’ll unlock the potential for even more abstract thought than our organic brains can currently support on their own”


Ray Kurzweil embodies the archetype of the brilliant yet naive scientist in sci-fi movies—the one who is so enamored with their creation that they fail to see the disaster looming ahead. Unlike tech oligarchs like Altman, Musk, and Zuckerberg, whose ideologies shift with political winds, Kurzweil is a true believer. He envisions AI ushering in a tech utopia where human limitations are eliminated, and any downsides are mere footnotes in the grand narrative of progress. As someone working in AI, I find his vision both intriguing and deeply unsettling.

Kurzweil and those like him—the ‘AI evangelists’—romanticize a future where humans merge with machines, where consciousness is uploaded to the cloud, where robots replace not just workers but friends, lovers, and even entire human identities. It’s a vision where real-world intimacy and connection are sidelined in favor of digital interactions—where living becomes less about experience and more about optimization.

In Kurzweil’s world, our brains would integrate with the cloud, tapping into vast computational power to “compete” with AI. But this raises disturbing questions: If our thoughts and memories exist on a server, who controls them? Are they recorded? Can they be manipulated? What happens when governments or corporations decide certain ideas are dangerous? What prevents an authoritarian regime from scanning neural data for ideological purity or erasing dissent at its source?

The risks don’t stop at surveillance. If external systems can read our thoughts, what’s stopping them from influencing them? Injecting impulses? Overriding free will? It’s not paranoia when the very companies advocating for these technologies—Meta, OpenAI, Amazon—already struggle with basic user trust. We don’t even trust them with our browsing history, yet we’re supposed to hand them the keys to our minds?

Kurzweil treats these concerns as afterthoughts, dismissing them in favor of unbridled enthusiasm. But the future he imagines reads less like a utopia and more like the plot of a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Kurzweil also fails to critically engage with the societal implications of AI-driven mass surveillance. Following the announcement of Stargate—a $500 billion public-private partnership for advanced AI systems—Larry Ellison stated, “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”

Our best behavior! This chilling vision of total surveillance, where private corporations and governments collaborate to monitor every aspect of life, goes largely unexamined in Kurzweil’s narrative. Instead, he sidesteps these concerns in favor of a narrative that prioritizes innovation over individual freedoms.

Another glaring issue is Kurzweil’s inconsistent arguments about the future of work. On one hand, he claims AI will create new jobs to replace those it displaces. On the other, he advocates for connecting human brains to machines so we can “compete” with AI for jobs, while also supporting universal basic income to address widespread unemployment. These contradictions undermine his credibility and paint a bleak picture of a society where a few tech oligarchs control the wealth and decision-making, while the majority survive on basic income with no real economic power.

Kurzweil’s dismissal of counterarguments is another weak point. For example, he employs a version of what some call “Pinkering”—a term derived from Steven Pinker’s optimistic view of global progress often times used by elites to justify the status quo. Kurzweil argues that humans focus too much on negative news and fail to see how much better the world is becoming. While there is truth to the idea that algorithms amplify negativity, this argument feels condescending and tone-deaf in the face of rising inequality, political unrest, and environmental crises. It’s hard to accept that “the world is better than you think” when homelessness in the U.S. rose by 18% in 2024, or when global surveys show a majority of people distrust government, media, and corporate leaders.

Take a look at this quote by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI

“The whole structure of society will be up for debate and reconfiguration."

Up for debate? These are the people that have captured both parities acting like we live in a democracy. Kurzweil is asking us to trust the most powerful people in the world to usher in a new era of technological innovation that threatens everyone’s livelihood.

One more thing, you’ll hear CEO’s and tech people use this argument all the time. The Luddite card. Kurzweil plays this card and distorts the historical context and movement of this group.

Luddites are often portrayed as people who were afraid of or opposed to all technology. Today, "Luddite" is used pejoratively to describe someone who resists technological progress. The Luddites were not opposed to technology itself. Their protests targeted the specific use of machines that disrupted skilled labor markets, reduced wages, and degraded working conditions. They were skilled artisans (primarily textile workers) who sought to protect their livelihoods and traditional craftwork. Luddites are often depicted as irrational, violent vandals who smashed machinery out of ignorance or rage.

The movement was highly organized and strategic. Luddites destroyed machinery as a form of protest against exploitative practices by factory owners. Their actions were more akin to early labor activism, driven by economic justice rather than blind rage.

The Luddites' protests highlighted issues that remain relevant today, such as the ethical use of technology, labor rights, and the societal consequences of automation. Modern discussions around job displacement due to AI or robotics echo Luddite concerns, showing their relevance to ongoing debates. Many of them died of starvation when they lost their jobs, they attempted to reach out to the government for a safety net but instead were met with a police and military crackdown.

Despite my disagreements, I still recommend this book. It’s important to engage with perspectives you disagree with, as it helps refine your own arguments and understand the mindset of AI optimists like Kurzweil. His vision of a tech-driven utopia is fascinating, even if it feels dangerously incomplete. For those interested in exploring the possibilities and pitfalls of AI, this book provides a thought-provoking, if deeply flawed, perspective.

3.4 stars.

[Kaleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this because I have a (morbid) fascination with tech bros and “tescrealists” and Kurzweil is kind of a god among them. He’s a nut obsessed with living forever, but you can’t deny he’s got a brain and ideas and has actually contributed to the progress of technology, which is more than you can say for most of the crowd.

Anyway, sadly for Kurz this is a super tech bro-y book. He name drops Bitcoin and Bojack Horseman among other predictable signals to a certain subculture that tends to buy into this ideology but that has NOTHING to do with the Singularity. It’s cringe.

He also makes this weird claim that it’s okay that people don’t make as much money now (and if they get automated out of jobs) because you get more bang for your buck nowadays, like sure computers are a little more expensive but they do so much more so it’s okay!! Oh yeah and because people enjoy doing things that are free (he says scrolling on tiktok lol) they don’t need more money anyway and we should rethink what GDP even means. Please Kurz.

When he does actually get into the stuff about singularity, it’s 2/3 of the way through the book and makes a huge jump off from the base he was attempting to build with all that bulk. He talks about the beginning of the universe, brain biology, and the evolution of technology and the internet in basic high-school or pop/sci level review. And somehow that’s a good enough foundation for him to promise that we WILL have augmented reality beamed into our retinas, omniscient AI assistants listening and responding to our every needs, nanobots swimming in our bodies to stop aging oh yeah and SUPERHUMAN machine intelligence all in the 2030s. Ok, Kurz!!!!

I tend to love sci-fi, especially hard sci-fi and vintage ephemera that attempts to predict the future (e.g., flying cars, geodesic domes, colonizing the moon) so I tried to enjoy this book as just more of that because, to an extent, it is. But the language used is this is not science fiction it’s not “we could have this!” it’s so confident: “we WILL have this” and “it WILL happen like this.” And knowing this is holy gospel to people with actual power and money makes it not funny at all. At least until the 2030s when we can all look back on it and laugh or think “god if only.”

[Αβδυλλα Aωαςhι · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Singularity is nearer now; after it had been just near, Kurzweil, as a Futurist, takes us to the future throughout this fascinating journey to the age of Singularity. The book has many interesting chapters, and the way Kurzweil introduces the technical concepts (whether relates to mathematics, medicine or machine learning) both shows how well he is at each of the mentioned disciplines and at the same time how well he is at simplifying those concepts to the general reader who maybe coming from totally different field and background.

The book discusses the Singularity point and its expected changes on the future of: Jobs, medicine, biotechnology, weapons, nanotechnology, literacy & architecture.

I have no doubt the the point of Singularity is coming and would be at much faster pace than we might think, this due mainly to the rapid scientific breakthroughs that are taking place at an exponential velocity. However, a critical question is: how we are going to navigate through this anticipated extraordinary merge with AI.

The book raises interesting and important moral and ethical questions about the future of using AI and to what extent humanity can delegate thier decision making to AI. Additionally it discusses many threats AI can pose to the human existence especially with the advances in the field of nanobots.

The most interesting part I liked is the one which presents the development in the field of Nanotechnology as it shows how our lives are going to be much better and different in terms of mental capabilities, cure and medicine and longevity.

One remark I have to say that Kurzweil in some chapters introduced detailed historical information which could have been presented in a summarized manner.

*Abdulla Awachi*
8 February 2025

[Wick Welker · Rating 4 out of 5]

We'll all be Aquaman in 20 years.

This is a futurist take by someone in the field and this book boils down to one thing: the Singularity is closer than you believe. By Singularity, the author means the merging of AI and the human mind. The author argues that the pace of AI is going to explode with each pacing year and will reach an acceleration point where growth is exponential. Augmented reality will hit hard in the late 20s and then nanotechnology will come about in the 2030s where people are injecting themselves with the bots that will get rid of DNA replication errors, delete cancer and also copy ad upload neural processes with a cloud with will entirely elevate human consciousness. It's kind of bonkers this guy thinks this will happen in the 2040s. He believes the first person to live 1,000 years is already alive. Bold claims by a person who says all this stuff with zero humor or hedging. For the author, it's all inevitability.

The things he missed are the fact that, even if these predictions are true, they certainly will not be universally liberating. AI will be used for subjugation as well because, of course. The author is far too optimistic about the impact of AI. The second thing he misses is he assumes the uptake will be 100% but of course it will not be. Humans are stubborn creatures with not only an aversion to being told what to do but literally believe vaccines are gene therapy. You really think all of us are going to shoot up some nanobots? No. What would happen is speciation as some go down the Singularity and the rest stay being in the stone ages.

At any rate, this was a fun book to read. I recommend.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Optimistic View of the Future of AI.

Buried under a blizzard of statistics and projections, Kurzweil makes a powerful case for a time in the very near Future where The Human Race will Merge with AI. He sees the nexus of lower costs and the speed of AI Research and Development issuing the Dawn of an Age of Aquarius where we have access to all the Knowledge in the Universe that impacts the whole Spectrum of Technology from Energy, Culture, Fashion, Construction, etc.

There are some flies in the ointment, though, lots of “ifs”!
So, while I’d love to join him on his Rainbow Bridge, i’ve seen too many roadblocks erected by Luddites in the past.
If the Culture allows us to do this, everything would be great. Well, we’ll see. The early 2030’s is fast approaching. If we do what is good for us all the pieces fall into line. How often do we do what is good for us?!

Still a very inspiring read amid all the Doom and Gloom aboutthe threat of AI. Four Stars. ****

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have read "The Singularity is Near", you don't need to read this follow-up. Part of this new book is a repeat of both the earlier book and "How To Create a Mind", the rest is a cursory discussion of new trends in AI and neuroscience. You can probably find a better place to read about these topics in more detail. Frankly, the book felt like a very drawn out way of saying "I told you so".

If you haven't read "The Singularity is Near" yet, then go ahead and read it, but skip this one. You don't need to read this follow-up. Or maybe just read this follow-up. But not both.

[Thomas Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of this was a bit of a challenge to wade through, some of this was characteristically mind-blowing. I was slapping post-it notes on it as I went, one per idea it stimulated, and I had a stack at the end. Now that's praise.

[Jurgen Appelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times, the book feels a bit over the top. But Ray Kurzweil is too smart to argue with. 😄

[Rouya Majid Nasiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be a 4-star book.
I am still not used to reading non-fiction and scientific texts; however, this is a well comprehensible book with global epidemics and intense research from every decade. Somehow, the information in this book is reliable to me and I trust every word. Mind-blowing indeed.

[Chris Capone · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can wade through the Ray Kurzweil autofellatio and the relentless, blinders-on optimism, this will fuck you up (assuming it is your introduction to futurism as it was for me). Anywho, go hug a loved one or something. The singularity will be a movie with y’all tho fr 💯🔥🤝

[Kate Woo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is insufferable. It’s not exactly poorly written, it’s just as technological salvation bro as it gets. Call me old fashioned but I actually have no desire to “extend my neocortex into the cloud”. The book never suggests that the direction of our own future is something we can participate in or WILL EVEN REQUIRE COLLABORATION IN THE FIRST PLACE, but what he does manage to do is toot his own horn continuously throughout the book—DID YOU KNOW HE AUTHORED MANY MORE BOOKS? HOW COULD YOU NOT? HE REFERENCES THEM ALMOST EVERY OTHER PARAGRAPH AND HOW HE PREDICTED EVERYTHING EVER.

[William Nist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurzweil is a noted futurist with many books and predictions. This book is about the future of AI. Ray believes that in a mere 10 years, AI will be extending our brains by a connection via our neocortex to a super-intelligent cloud...somewhat like a smart phone extends our knowledge via the cloud but is not directly attached to our brain. Kurzweil gives a description and a rationale for this startling claim.

Most of the book looks at life after this AI convergence. It examines the pros and cons of life and the sense of self that would remain after this evolution. There are many leaps of faith one must take to be convinced that this would be even moderately painless. For instance, the transition period when AI eliminates an awful lot of jobs, can not be a trauma free as Ray thinks. Retraining for the few jobs left, or inventing new preoccupations seems like a daunting (and slow) task to me! People can get pretty desperate rather fast when their income check ends. My Primary Care Doctor is not going to be happy. Most certainly there has to be a radical change in the way income is distributed when human work is so diminished. Do I hear Universal Basic Income?

Anyhow, I like this kind of speculation. I await the implant of my neocortex device eagerly.

[Zander Kessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The casualness with which he says “yup it will be super intelligent in the next 5-10 years. Yup it could easily destroy us. Yup every kid born today will have their brain plugged directly into the cloud.” Is crazy scary. Why is he not more concerned about all the downsides here?
I also thought he spent way too long listing all the ways the world has been getting better as if that is somehow proof that we will make all the proper responsible choices. I don’t have that much trust, and his list of things about the world bored me reading this.
The very last point was super interesting however. He argues that it is imperative that we should merge ourselves with AI because then it is still technically “us.” When it can think and do art and perform meaningful work and influence the world way faster and better than we can, he argues that we can maintain our meaningful status in the world by making sure it is “us” in control, by merging biological brains directly into super-intelligent modified brains. It suddenly made sense on the last page of the book why he was so unconcerned because he has 100% resigned to a “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality.

[Jeffrey Lush · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is interesting, incredibly well sourced, and the track record of the author at predicting technological advancement is excellent. That is why I am giving it 2 stars versus 1. However, I just didn’t enjoy how often it rehashes topics from previous books he has written, how it doesn’t build on theories and predictions proposed but just reiterates them. It’s really repetitive, and reframes the same handful of predictions in numerous ways. In 10-15 years you’ll be able to say things came true from this book because every chapter is a different hedge on the same 3-4 predictions. Try and find an interview with the author, or a summary of this book and save yourself the time it takes to read this book.

[Antonis Christou · Rating 1 out of 5]

300 pages of tech bro ai worship that tries to convince us with a litany of cherry picked statistics, poor philosophizing, and borderline offensive rhetoric that what we need is more tech integration in our lives and that through AI, all our worldly and spiritual problems will be solved. Honestly really disappointed because I was hoping for a nuanced, careful account of what the future might hold and instead I got big tech propaganda :(

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is an update on how Kurzweil's projections are faring. The answer? Pretty well!
I would give this a lower score, but I don't think there's any trickery, this book wasn't advertised as something with Kurzweil's latest breakthroughs. There's some discussion about the new AI developments (LLMs), but nothing overly technical. Because he's on like all of the political boards for the future of AI and this that or the other, he has a lot of stats on how things have gotten better everywhere due to developments in technology, and projections on how they will only improve with time, unless politics gets into it. I do appreciate some positivity for once, however, I do probably need to read some counterpoints before I get overenthusiastic. I'm a little skeptical about the vertical farms, wouldn't they require even more energy? Even with the improvements in solar .. I'm not sure if that can be offset as quickly, but I guess time will tell. All my life I've been somewhat against technological innovation, more so because I didn't really see a reason why you need to keep pushing for more and more all the time. Of course now I see the geopolitical reasons, but Kurzweil explained how technological innovation actually leads to things getting better by almost all measurements. I guess you can argue that he's measuring the wrong things, but I found the argument pretty convincing. As I said, I need to read something less optimistic soon to even out my viewpoint on this (maybe Superintelligence?). One of the things I found fascinating was his description of potentially creating almost a secondary nucleus for cells that can "take orders" from a more centralized command center in the body to build proteins. The other was his description of "gray goo". Also, I absolutely, 100% need to learn more about cellular automata, that stuff is bananas. So there were great parts to this book, but overall, I would have preferred something deeper and more technical, something I know Kurzweil is capable of, but I think he was trying to reach a broader audience.

[Wilga · Rating 4 out of 5]

If anyone wonders where the Bobiverse was born... literally and word by word, this is the source of it, I bet, I don't mind, but I even started a list of all the concepts :D Gotta go back to those books to see if Kurzweil is honourably mentioned or was it all just a total conincidence.

Now, having that out of the way :D...

This was a deeply enjoyable book, full of the kind of optimism that is my truly guilty pleasure. This optimism is something that collides with my observations of human nature around me (say, at work, in politics), but yet this is also what I *want* to believe, I want to have that sweet conscious confirmation bias towards the views of people like Pinker and Kurzwell who promise light and offer a future full of innowation that will save us and science that will absolve us eventually, full of mathematical and scientific proof that we are indeed and actaully alright and progress is doing well, and it's just the said human nature I complain about all too often that keeps us from seing that on a daily.

Yes, I am an optimist too, albeit a grumpy one, I guess, and I am not sarcastic in that (not in my genes anyway).

Content wise, the book is super-interesting, quite in depth, but not an entry level at times. It goes quite into some technicalities, which is awesome for people like me, but may be tough for an average popular-science consumer. It just does not flow light, especially in the early chapters. It is generally not balanced, and the composition is a little scattered when the author talks about different futuristic ideas. In a way, the book is about the future and what might await us (not so much about current issues, though they are there as a starting point), and how AI will play a role. It is not *just* about AI.

I also appreciate that there is no element of panic so common on the topics about AI and progress.

Overall, it's a solid 4.

[Abby Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I have heard some comments that this book includes lots of rehashing or his prior books, but this is the first Kurzweil book I have read. I’m blown away. I appreciate the data driven and content packed writing style. There are probably a hundred things in this book that I’ve never thoroughly considered - and I work in tech… definitely recommend this read