The Singularity is Near

Chapter Summary

In this chapter, Ray Kurzweil presents and defends his view that we will reach a technological singularity in the next few decades, which he defines as a “period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” Kurwzweil argues that the pace of technological change, particularly with respect to information technologies, is exponential, and that we are near the “knee” of the exponential curve (i.e. the point at which the curve changes from largely horizontal to largely vertical). Kurzweil predicts that a core feature of the singularity will be the merging of biological and machine intelligence, such that the majority of “human” intelligence will become non-biological, and the merging of virtual and physical reality. Kurzweil considers this the next step in human-machine co-evolution.

This chapter is excerpted from Ray Kurzweil (2005) The Singularity is Near (Viking). It appears here by permission of the author.