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| Titre : | The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology |
| Auteurs : | Ray Kurzweil |
| Type de document : | document électronique |
| Editeur : | [S.l.] : Penguin Books, 2006 |
| ISBN/ISSN/EAN : | 978-0-14-303788-0 |
| Résumé : |
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. ### From Publishers Weekly *Starred Review.* Renowned inventor Kurzweil (*The Age of Spiritual Machines*) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientistÔÇöa large-minded one at thatÔÇöand gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convinceÔÇögiven the scope of his projections, that's inevitableÔÇöbut the degree to which it seems downright plausible. *(Sept.)* Copyright ┬® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### From Bookmarks Magazine Kurzweil is one of the worldÔÇÖs most respected thinkers and entrepreneurs. Yet the thesis he posits in *Singularity* is so singular that many readers will be astoundedÔÇöand perhaps skeptical. Think *Blade Runner *or *Being John Malkovich* magnified trillion-fold. Even if one were to embrace his techno-optimism, which he backs up with fascinating details, Kurzweil leaves some important questions relating to politics, economics, and morality unanswered. If machines in our bodies can rebuild cells, for example, why couldnÔÇÖt they be reengineered as weapons? Or think of singularity, notes the *New York Times Book Review*, as the "Manhattan Project model of pure science without ethical constraints." KurzweilÔÇÖs vision requires technology, which we continue to build. But it also requires mass acceptance and faith. *Copyright ┬® 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.* |
