Ray Kurzweil is famous for his predictions on the future. One of his major beliefs is that in transhumanism, or a transitive state where humans begin to transform in to something more. On that subject, he has a documentary/science fiction movie named after his book, "The Singularity is Near." Kurzweil is a polarizing person, with former CEO of Lotus Development Mitch Kapor calling his ideas "Intelligent Design for the IQ 140 people." In his new documentary, Kurzweil interviews twenty top thinkers-including Mitch Kapor-about their takes his ideas. Intertwined into the interviews and expository explanation of his principles is a science fiction story of a female artificial intelligence trying to beat the Turing test (a test in which an artificial intelligence sees if it is able to fool a human into thinking it is another human) in 2029.
Meant as an illustration of Kurzweil's ideas for a mainstream audience, "The Singularity is Near" will cover topics like the law of accelerating returns, artificial intelligence and the defeat of death. The law of accelerating returns dictates that innovations are occurring faster than they ever have in the past and that new technologies are taking less time to be fully developed.
He believes that this trend will hold in biotechnology, and that before he ages enough to die, there will be innovations that will dramatically lengthen human lifespans. He practices what he preaches, too. Every day he takes more than 200 vitamins and supplements with the aim of slowing his aging. His doctors claim that he appears more like a forty year old than his current 61. While the ideas expressed in the movie will not be new ground for Kurzweil-all the ideas have already been postulated in his many books -they are still fascinating.
Transhumanism is a fascinating subject. There are valid criticisms that current conceptions of it are invalid, and that the future is just as likely to be dark and disturbing as it is to be Ray Kurzweil's utopia. However research is already begun on most of the things Kurzweil predicts. New breakthroughs have allowed for complicated organs to be printed off of modified ink jet printers. DARPA (a government body responsible for many innovations that would have been too expensive for the free market to finance) is planning human trials of brain computer interfaces aimed at controlling robotic limbs that have already been developed. IBM is prepping a computer to compete on Jeopardy. Whatever the future holds, we need to be ready, because the singularity is near.
George Pettit is a journalist and marketing specialist from New Caledonia. He is often writing about promotions, movies and books that set new horizons and worldviews and bring new standards.
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