Fairfax County Library: 303.483, Kurzwei 2024

Author: Ray Kurzweil , world-class inventor, thinker and futurist, MIT graduate, Grammy Award winner for music technology, principle researcher and AI visonary at Google.

Abstract

In this book, Ray 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 years reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propeling 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 3D printing. He also considered perils that technology can bring including impact to employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and after life technology which aims to revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.

Review from Amazon

This book is enjoyable because it’s more hopeful about the future than most books. Kurzweil revisits his Six Stages of computer-human evolution and the historically relevant development of AI to modern times—most interesting. The uploading of minds was way cool. Kurzweil explains the world is getting better with lots of supporting graphs. And the large print version of the book was a blessing. Over all, the book is fascinating.

However, there’s a few little problems with this book: The Who I AM chapter is too philosophical for me. It tries to answer questions like self awareness, consciousness and qualia. All of which are known to be neural circuitry in the brain. Even emotional circuity has been discovered. And these sub-circuits and numerous sensors give rise to feelings of being an individual that knows oneself. The books The Archaeology of Mind and Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain explain these subprocesses in the brain.

Another issue was the lack of social and psychological descriptions in the post-singularity world. What happens to babies, young children, old people with Alzheimer’s, social structure and governments? The only book that explains this social science and technology is a science fiction book Playing for Eternity: A Utopian Novel. However, I’d like to read an actual non-fiction book that answers these social and psychological questions about what happens after the Singularity.

Chapters

  • Where are we in the six stages
  • Reinventing intelligence
  • Who am I?
  • Life is getting exponentially better
  • The future of jobs: good or bad
  • The next 30 years in health and well being
  • Peril
  • Dialogue with Cassandra

Notes

Epoch Medium Timescale
First Nonliving matter Billions of years (nonbiological atomic and chemical synthesis)
Second RNA and DNA Millions of years (until natural selection introduces a new behavior)
Third Cerebellum Thousands to millions of years (to add complex skills via evolution), hours to year (for very basic learning)
Fourth Neocortex, Digital neural nets Hours to week (to master complex new skills)
Fifth Brain-computer interface seconds to minutes (to explore ideas unimaginable to present-day human)
Sixth Computronium < seconds (to continually reconfigure cognition toward the limits of what the laws of physics allows)

Chapter 1 shares 6 stages/epochs We are currently at the Fourth epoch. But when we pass Turning test, we will be entering Fifth epoch

Chapter 2

  • Cerebellum: A modular structure
  • The neocortext: A self-modifying, hierachical, flexible structure
  • Deep learning: re-creating the powers of the neocortex

What does AI still need to achieve (to re-creating the capabilities of neocortex) - p 54-55

  • contextual memory
  • common sense
  • social interaction – social nuances like an ironic tone of voice are not well represented in the text databases AI are mostly trained on

Chapter 3

  • Talking to my dad bot (p105) This is a good set of sample questions that such a bot could include. It directly or indirectly reflects a person’s life philosophy and experience.
    • What do you love most about music?
    • Who is your favorite composer, and why?
    • What is the essence of rock and roll music?
    • How did you first get involved in conducting
    • How do you want to be remembered?
    • Do you have any regrets?
    • What makes a person who they are?
    • Do you have any hobbies?
    • Do you have any anxieties?
    • How do you feel about modern technology?
    • Can you tell me a story about a car accident?
    • What is the meaning of life?

Keywords

artificial intelligence, neocortex, job, health, futurist, peril

References