When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence - The Age of Spiritual Machines

Back in the '50s artificial intelligence researchers Newell, Shaw, and Simon created a program called the General Problem Solver which succeeded in finding solutions to some hard problems in mathematics, to include a completely original proof to a theorem from Principia Mathematica that had never previously been solved. This led Simon and Newell to predict that by 1985 that machines would be able to perform any task that humans can do.
Simon and Newell were brilliant thinkers, but also were gravely mistaken in their predictions. Their optimism has ever since embarrassed the AI field. Fast forward to 1999, the year in which Kurzweil wrote The Age of Spiritual Machines. Deep Blue has defeated chess champion Gary Kasparov, the world wide web is everywhere, and virtual reality image technology has improved. All marvelous technological achievements, but reading this book I can't help but think that Kurzweil is falling into the same trap into which Simon and Newell fell half a century ago. Extrapolating current progress to predict the future is a tricky business.
Kurzweil is at his most persuasive when he discusses the recent past and present. Spiritual Machines is filled with interesting insights on how we think and how our brains work, and his discussions on emerging technologies strike the right balance between technical detail and general readability.
His predictions for the future, however, come across as outlandish. Kurzweil predicts that within 100 years that machines themselves will claim to be human, that humans will universally use neural implant technology that will allow them to immediately understand information, and that those humans that don't use this technology will be unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with those who do.
I'm puzzled by readers who find this outlook to be optimistic, and I recognize that it is possible that I reject Kurzweil's predictions simply because I find them unpleasant. I'm no technophobe, but I do find that I enjoy holding a book in my hand, struggling to learn a new language, and assimilating information and communicating using the carbon-based brain that I was born with.
That said, Spiritual Machines is interesting and thought provoking, and often entertaining. The reader simply needs to consider the author's enthusiasm for AI when evaluating his conclusions. At any rate, seeing that Kurzweil is at the cutting edge of the technology that he discusses in this book, perhaps it's not reasonable to expect him to keep his enthusiasm in check.

Interesting tape. The first tape (of two) is fairly commonplace - the growth of computing power, Moore's Law and some nice definitions of intelligence and human learning. However on tape two things get real scary! OK a lot of the themes are covered in books like "What Will Be" (Michael Dertouzos) and hinted at in Bill Gates' phrophecies but man this guy really stretches possibility. The Law of Accelerating Returns sounds like something Moses should have brought down from the mountain. If it is true, then we are talking about something much much stronger than "survival of the fittest". Could it really be that we have been created purely as a stepping stone to the next level of intelligence? OK, I am sure that the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits have done this but lets put aside cynicism for a while. If you link together what Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra talk about in terms of higher intelligence and Kurzweil's Law, what you have is a Universal (I mean Universal not just the metaphor) drive to create intelligence. Hey, I mean this could be the theory of everything! The battle between chaos (disintegration into atomic form) versus intelligence (the creation of higher forms).
Very thought provoking and definitely worth getting a hold of. I only gave it three stars because (at least on the tape) he seemed to duck out of an number of issues. As machine intelligence supercedes human intelligence and we can copy our minds onto software, where does that leave identity? If we use nanobots to replace our immune systems and repair/modify our bodies so we are heathier, stronger, improved, wont that end up with a homogeneous human race? And if it does, what happens to the cauldron of chaos that evolution uses to energise itself and try out new ideas? Lastly, in a world where humanity and machine co-exist, what is death? A system crash, a jump from one old body to a new one or an erased disk?

Kurzweil provides a wonderful treatment where we are right now and where we might possibly be in the future. Though I do think that he is overoptimistic about the near future, he may not be optimistic enough about the far future. He takes such an earth-centric view of how life will be in 2099. But what if these vastly intelligent machines that he predicts finds us the secret of warping space or something equally revolutionary. He predicts that people on earth will abandon their earthly bodies and upload onto the web. But what if there is any sort of space exploration? Obviously our bodies would be better suited for that than virtual counterparts.
But he is a futurist after all so you cant take his predictions too seriously. He does though provide a very valuable account of what is at least POSSIBLE in the future and that alone can blow your mind, whether or not you actually believe his predictions will come true.

Technology is evolving at an exponential rate, and Kurzweil argues that this process has been in effect since the beginning of technology, and that it will continue infinitely. Technology is seen as an extension of human evolution, since it is one of the defining traits of human beings and is - so far - controlled by humans. The next step is for technology to began evolving without human interference, so that it will continue to devlelop independent of us; also, it will be more and more closely integrated into our lives, to the extent that humans and machines will be increasingly difficult to separate.
That's all well and good, and Kurzweil provides plenty of technical evidence to his credit, and even refers to some of his older predictions that have come true. Central to his theories is Moore's Law, which states roughly that microprocessors double in speed every two years. Apparently, according to Kurzweil, this will eventually result in computers that are truly intelligent. Processor speed will eventually be superior to human brain processing, allowing machines to somehow jump from thoughtless super-calculators to living, thinking, emotional beings.
Does this sound familiar? It seems like sci-fi has been anticipating this supposed inevitability for fifty years or more. But Kurzweil takes a slightly different view on things; namely, he seems to welcome such a change. Since technology is a natural extension of humanity, it fits right in with his pseudo-religious/scientific version of the super-human.
The format of the book shifts between his predictions and theories to a fictional conversation with a futuristic woman. This woman is part human/part machine, and is capable of doing a number of activities simultaneously (Great for her resume, I'm sure): hold a conversation with the author, compose a symphony, write a book, make love; essentially, she does all the things that we do, but way better and way faster and all at the same time! Wow! Wouldn't that make life great! You wouln't even have to study music composition to write scores superior to Beethoven, because you could just download all the information you'll ever need. (Anyone who has ever used Sonic Foundry's Acid software, or Rebirth, knows that this anti-intellectual mode of music composition is already off to an auspicious beginning.)
Kurzweil's book makes for an interesting read, and is particularly suited for the restroom or the coffee table, but his philosophy is ultimately anti-human. Certainly elements of his predictions will come true, but if humans ever cease to be mortal, limited by their own intellect, or antagonized by anxiety, they will no longer be human.

I read SINGULARITY before SPIRITUAL which, of course, is exactly the wrong order. In the time since this book was published he has had an opportunity (in SINGULARITY) to reflect, confirm and gloat if you will. Unlike Drake, who promised we would receive confirmation of extraterrestrial life by the year 2000, Kurzweil is amazingly accurate. He forecast an extremely short discovery period for the Human Genome (confounding the "experts" who predicted 100s of years). He stated that Big Blue would defeat a human - this after a devestating defeat. He correctly predicted the exponential rate of computer power and all that this implies for our future.

When he says "spiritual" - a word I am uncomfortable with - he is not assigning theological or mystical characteristics. More accurately he is describing a "human" machine, a machine with its philosophical underpinnings as human but yet it is more than human. The Age of Human Machines would be a more apt title. The book is not straight forward (perhaps by design) making the reader browse, go back, skip, etc.

Many readers take their eye off the mark and get stuck in local or current events - starvation in Africa, war in the Mideast, ethnic cleansing, ecology, global warming, etc. Yet none of these has had any effect on the rate of the acquisition of knowledge. We have reached a point where progress is almost self-sustaining - the more we discover, the more we know how much we don't know. Like a boulder rolling down a hill, the rush to research, experiment and design shows no sign of slowing. I was less than impressed with the discussion about consciousness and the future of the universe. Does a machine that is aware that it is learning "conscious"? Is consciousness simply a function of having enought nodes operating in parallel? If spiritual machines come to fruition history will veer into new directions we cannot conceive.

Being interested in "Spirited Science", this book left me wanting for more content regarding spirit. The current trends in consciousness, chi, prayer, etc were practically ignored in this book, with a predominate emphasis on western style computer technology. Kurzweil's exciting future virtual landscape may happen, but most likely because of different technology trends. If humans are really large scale, coherent, biological quantum information/computing systems, then classical neural networks and algorithms will never lead to machines that dream or meditate. The most likely future will prove out that consciousness is more than classical bits stored on a network disk. I kept waiting for the research supporting spirit to be reviewed with the same care used in the early section on history of computing, but it never materialized. Maybe the next edition will have a more balanced view by providing another chapter on the consciousness technology revolution happening around us.

Sometimes "IT IS THE ENVIOUS NEGATIVE DISCIPLES OF NOTHINGNESS" hiding out in their secured tenured positions who write the MOST critical reviews of those who have had the courage and vision to contribute to the world in concrete and measurable ways. Other times, such reviews are written by people who misinterpret content and are fearful of progress. Some even write reviews about books they have not carefully read! Then again, there are those in the educational and business world who enthusiastically applaud Ray Kurzweil history and his future success with "The Age of Spiritual Machines. I am one of them.
I wrote a 10,000 word paper last summer that involved extensive current research covering the areas explored in this book. As I see it, Ray Kurzwell is "right on the mark" and should receive more than adequate support from the scientific community.
Dr. Kurzwell has an outstanding track record, first as a compassionate and generous human being who has helped untold numbers of individuals with his Kurzweils Reading Machine, the Kurzweil Synthesizer and the Advance Speech Recognition and other outstanding and innovative technological concepts and products. AND It is not only those he has helped that are appreciative. In 1990 Kurzweil won the Award for the Most Outstanding Computer Science Book. In 1994, he was the receipitant of the Dickson Prize, Carnegie Mellons top science prize. He also holds nine honary doctorates and honors from two U.S. Presidents. As if this is not enough, he also was named Inventor of the Year by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in 1988! (When I read a book I am interested in knowing the back ground of the person, whether it be in education or business or a combination of both.) I would not be surprised to find his most recent work on the 1999 New York Times Best Seller list!
A Harvard University Student

I was delighted to see Kurzweil describe the process by which AI appears to sneak up on you. It mirrors my personal experience. Back in the 70s I worked on a computer program called Optow, to design high voltage transmission lines. At first, the designs it produced were laughable. Each day I worked on it, the designs got better and better. One day it got as good as a human. Two weeks later it was designing lines 10% better than a human. Suddenly a design team of 50 engineers, most with masters degrees and PhDs were obsolete.
The progress was steady, but the effect on the workers came overnight. I anticipate that this pattern will repeat. Millions of white collar workers will find themselves overnight unemployed as gradual advances in AI (Artificial Intelligence) reach the stage it is better than humans at task after task.

Of all the books written in recent years concerning the soon-to-be-felt effects of rapidly advancing technology, Ray Kurzweil's is the best. He combines a confident grasp of technical and scientific complexities with the unusual ability to express far-reaching ideas in a way that is not only understandable but compelling. Kurzweil is a noted inventor, a wealthy entrepreneur, a genius, and a fine author. It's too bad he hasn't published more books (this is only his third), but apparently he has his hands full running high-tech companies, participating in think tanks, and contributing to his fabulous online chronicle of technological advancement.
The Age of Spiritual Machines serves as a sweeping review of the historical development of intelligence and computation, as a grand introduction to the fields of nanotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, and as a mind-blowing summary of where we are headed in the next thirty years. Kurzweil's scientific credentials are impeccable and lend credence to his often startling extrapolations. For the non-technical reader, the book is very engaging and highly readable. For the more serious student, it includes a comprehensive series of notes and an exhaustive bibliography. On all counts, I give it my highest recommendation.

I first discovered The Age of Spiritual Machines after Our Lady Peace released their album by the same name. The album included excerpts from the book, read by Kurzweil himself. I was fascinated, and I immediately went out and bought the book to read more. Kurzweil's predictions are eerie and send minds into the science fiction realm of works like Orwell's 1984. Many of his predictions on the advancement of technology have come to pass, which is scary and yet, still exciting and hopeful in a way. While there is a great deal of straight cut science in this book, I also really enjoyed the interviews between Kurzweil and Molly, a character he sent into the future to report back to him from time to time. This book gave me goosebumps, and I loved it! It's in my top five favorite books of all time. I can't wait to read more of Kurzweil's work.

Ray Kurzweil has postulated a new theorem to predict the rateat which intelligence will evolve. That is to say, what we now call'artificial intelligence.' Whether this rule will be any more accurate than reading goats' entrails, only time will tell. But not much time. Kurzweil's estimates say that most people reading this sentence will live to see software with more human intelligence than most humans now have. And the end of the century will see software more intelligent than human society in total.
Most of the new technologies Kurzweil describes we've already met through science fiction: the robot companions in "I, Robot" and the nanobots in "Diamond Age." However, this book comes without the baggage of plot lines and fictional characters. Kurzweil is a self-described optimist: he spends only a few pages on considerations of the ethics or morality of vacuum cleaners with feelings. He believes (most) humans will accept these new intelligent forms, and merge them with our own society.
The 4-star rating is because even the author doesn't seem sure who his audience is. He expects readers to follow along as he talks fluently about Wittgenstein, qu-bits and set theory. Then he interrupts each chapter with an imaginary Q&A session, apparently between Kurzweil and a particularly dim student, to re-explain the entire topic. I found that device disruptive.
Kurzweil is a booster for science. He obviously loves living in 'interesting times' and that comes through in every chapter. I found it refreshing to read a book about future technologies that isn't filled with dire warnings and doom and gloom. It's the best book I've read this year.

Ray Kurzweil, an inventor of new technologies, discusses how today's rapid advances in computer intelligence will eventually lead to machines that are more intelligent than human beings. He suggests that these machines also will develop human sensitivities, leading to an increased blurring between machines and humans. Drawing on the latest developments in science and technology, Kurzweil presents a fairly compelling argument, though some readers may find the discussions hard to follow since he frequently cites physics, biology and other scientific disciplines. Kurzweil is trying to simplify a complex theoretical and technical subject, so we [...] forgive the occasional repetition of his main arguments, and recommend this fascinating, well-researched and well-reasoned book.

For once someone has written a book full of predictions for the future that are positive, optimistic and most importantly realistic--for the moment anyway. This book does not preach the usual science fiction rhetoric of what the future will be. Gratifyingly absent are the cliche predictions such as the rise of souless, menacing machines and the gradual destruction of human compassion. Instead Kurzweil ingeniously employs the help of a fictional human "reader" to demostrate his predictions as she, in time, experiences them all. In doing so, Kurzweil unfolds his vision of the future where human emotions and feelings continue to exist as the human race and its technology head toward the ever blurring line that exists between them.

Ray Kurzweil, as many will attest, is what one might call an 'out-there' visionary. His ideas are far from humble. Fortunately for the rest of us, this allows for some highly entertaining discussion on where, with all this technological progress, we may be headed.
Luddites, prepare to be disappointed. This book most certainly does not portent a doomsday-end-of-the-world-apocalypse. The rest of use may rejoice; the future, at least according to Kurzweil, is bright. Especially if you're into out-of-body experiences...
Entertaining as it might be, and perhaps even accurate, this book fails, quite miserably, to address the responsibility that technocrats are entrusted with. Kurzweil brushes this off by saying that the invisible hand of evolution will be sure to guide us in the right direction.
Expect to take away from this book a bit of the currents in Artificial Intelligence and robotics; and a possibly 'happy' way for man and machine to co-exist in the otherwise media prounced doomed future. Can't wait.

Kurzweil is either a true visionary, or somewhat of a kook. Overall, the book is fairly interesting. It has some OK history, some interesting speculations. My problems with the book are as follows:
1. Kurzweil overestimates the power of today's computers. Or he's overimpressed. Nowadays we have all this memory and processing power, and all we get is Windows?
Deep Blue did not "sail past" Gary Kasparov. Etc. Kurzweil needs to be more realistic and less elegiac about these matters.
2. Kurzweil underestimates the truly great accomplishments of humans: great art, great music, great scientific insights.
3. Kurzweil gets all kinds of philisophical issues wrong, or he misses them. For instance, humans have done the things they have done because they live in an environment with all kinds pains and pleasures. How the conscious computers of the future could have a "real" context without physical, mental or spiritual necessities is never explained. Why a conscious computer, which could just shut itself off and forget about consciousness and everything else, would not do so is never explained.
4. Kurzweil has padded his book quite nicely. The material in the chapters also fills a long timeline. There is a huge bibliography. You'll see.
Kurzweil may be right, but I hope he is wrong. The world he suggests would quickly degenerate into something we humans would never accept.

Kurzweil's forecasts for super-exponential growth in computing technology and his investigation of the results will seem outlandish to many readers. But Kurzweil's vision is backed by a history of successful predictions and businesses and a roster of substantial inventions (from a reading machine for the blind, to voice recognition technology, to the first digital music synthesizer). He also backs his forecasts with plenty of data. Agree or not, this highly stimulating book helps stretch your imagination to see the possible full extent of the IT revolution. If Kurzweil is anywhere near correct, we've only just begun the revolution.

This is certainly one of the most interesting books I have read in the recent years. Definitely it is controversial, as it can be seen from other reviews, but my impression of this book was quite strong. The rythm and style of the book is not homogeneous, but still skillfully stays stuck to the theme. I would divide it in two parts, one introductory, analytical and profound, with deep implications in philosophy, evolution and creation, and a second part, where a thrilling merging of man and machine is envisioned.
His thought-provoking theories on the evolution of living beings and the development of intelligent species in the universe made my mind fly high and contemplate with awe the careful design of all creation, and specially the perfect (I still believe) human machine. However, according to his predictions, the perfection of the human machine by merging with its own artificially intelligent creatures is scary. I only hope we are "intelligent" enough to avoid being overtaken by our own creation. It is absolutely worth reading.

Kurtzweil's future is astonishingly different than most of what one comes across in contemporary science and science fiction writing. In sum, his prediction that computation speeds will continue to increase exponentially at the current rate (as per Moore's law) and exceed human intelligence in a mere 20 years, followed by a gradual merging of machine and human intelligence, amounts to the death-nell for humanity and human history. While his view that we will evolve into more intelligent beings, with the accompanying elimination of hunger, disease, war and other human foibles is intensely optomistic, I couldn't help felling a measure of sadness at the imminent demise of the human race, whose greatness lies, at least partly, in its imperfection. Notwithstanding, an incredibly thought provoking book and well worth a read. cheers.

Kurzweil provides a very insightful, thought-provoking, and entertaining foray into the world of artificial intelligence, and its implications for the future of humanity. Even 15 years after it was published, it remains relevant and indeed many of his predictions (though not all of them) made back in the 1990s seem to have been rather prescient. Will be interesting to see if technology continues to evolve roughly according to his vision. I don't agree with everything he says but I respect his knowledge and intellect, and would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject of AI. Which in this day and age, would be a subject that all of us should keep tabs on!

Good book. I don't remember the specifics, because I read it when it came out, which was a few years ago. But I'm continually recommending it to people. Along with another book in a simlar vein, by author Daniel Crevier, called AI. Which is one of my favourite books of all time.
Ray writes about what has happened in technology during human history, touching upon particularly important examples of improved technology.
He then extrapolates from this, the idea that technology is getter better and better, faster and faster. And hence that some important changes are going to take place soon, which may or may not (depending on how technology is used,) lead to some important quality of life milestones being reached by humankind.
Third world milestones, such as substantially reduced world hunger and reduced number of people who don't have access to other basic needs like clothing, basic medicine and shelter.
And Milestones for the general population, such as substantially improved day to day health (technology which significantly reduces obesity and improves muscle and skin tone and flexability and significantly speeds up healing etc.) and substantially longer lifespan.
The bulk of the book and it's key strength is in taking recent technologies that we are familar with today and showing directly how they will lead to much better technologies in the near future.
This book did this very well for it's time. Since then a cornucopia of authors have written similar books which draw from this one, so it is becoming slightly dated (which you would expect a book to become, quickly, in our accelerating age, no?)
Still, Highly Recommended.

I bought the book after attending a symposium organised by DougHofstadter at Stanford and featuring Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec(among others.) It really is a best seller in the US - at least intech book terms - WAKE UP Britian! The central theme of this book (and Moravec's Mind Children and Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind and Paul & Cox's Beyond Humanity), is that we are approaching the crossover ie we are roughly 20 years away from when machine intelligence will overtake human intelligence. And that once this happens, machine intelligence will accelerate into uncharted waters. I think that a convincing case is built that we are on track to do this within approximately this time span.
It's quite possible to nit-pick over much of what Kurzweil says - but that's not the point. The point is the general vision of where we are headed. Kurzweil's view is that there is a 50% plus chance that humanity will make it through this transitory phase (ie the next century), that we will successfully combat the comming threats of self replicating biotech pathogens, software pathogens and self replicating nanopathogens, to complete the process of integration with our technology - and abandonment of our biological roots that we are now in the early/final stages of. Early because we are currently only fractionally fused with our technology (language, books, machines etc). Final because the maybe 40,000 year process is, because of the exponential acceleration of technological development, perhaps only 50-100 years or so away from completion.
I guess this is likely to seem utterly far fetched to 99.9% of the public - just as would mobile phones, the internet and robotic jet travel have seemed beyond belief to a 1900 audience. My belief is that these guys are very much on the right track. Bottom line - If you are interested in how this century might pan out, this is as good a place to start as any. END

In this volume, Ray Kurzweil offers a frighteningly detached blueprint for a digital future. (A better subject for this book might have been, "The age of dispirited humans: when humans cede intelligence to machines.") Before I launch into the following disquisition, I should note that the author is engaging, speaks clearly, and tells a good tale. Which makes it scarier still. Perhaps the undercurrent of virtual sexuality presented in SPIRITUAL MACHINES best embodies (or should I say "disembodies"?) the author's total disconnect from what I consider human and humane. He sees the present flood of sexual matter on the web as a pale harbinger of the future of virtual sex - a coming era when sexual experience with our computers will first be indistinguisable from physical relations, and then much better. He suggests that even when we are in the same room with someone with whom we wish to engage sexually we will opt for climbing into our units to get it on in cyberspace. (That is, while there are still rooms, and bodies - a condition he confidently predicts will end by the 22nd century.) He notes that there will be no STDs, no physcial awkwardnesses, hey, not even constrictions on body shapes, appendages, orifices, whatever...) And we will do it forever. The words "natural life span" will no longer have meaning. Looks like hell to me.

This book is a good introduction to the future of technology and how this will affect our everyday lives. Part of the book makes me want to move to North Dakota and start organic farming and throw my cell phone in the East River but I kept reading anxiously to see the evolution on nonotechnology and if the computer with a psuedo-soul will be my grandkid's or even kid's teachers. (By the way my grandkids will be born in about 40 years and will most likely live to be over a hundred years old) Kurzweil assumes that readers will be of all levels of genious so he includes an ever so helpful glossary in the back, as well as his own instructions for building your own "spiritual machine". All levels of computer intelligence are considered including the role they will play in the arts and medical fields. There are many times that I disagree with Kurtweil, or at least I hope he will be wrong. I never considered myself a Luddite but this book made me aware of what the not so distant future might hold. At times it's a little loquatious (wordy) for the non- technological jargon "literate" but it satified my curiousities in most ways. The lasting conclusion that "The Age of Spiritual Machines" leaves me with is that the future will be great for those who were once blind. deaf or seaking virtual activities in a world very far removed from our own but quite scary and apolling from one whose sensibilities remain in the natural word of vegetation, being born (by ones own biological mother) and the grand finally of death, and yes I do mean virtually, mentally and physically!

Kurzweil's second book is almost mind-numbing in the possibilities it suggests for the future of our world. Thankfully, Kurzweil has managed to convey rather technical thoughts in layman's words, so "Spiritual Machines" is both easy to read and understand. Once you get past his numerous self references and advertisements for products he designed, the ideas presented are amazing and slightly frigthening. The world we live in thirty years from now will be much different from the one we live in today. This is an excellent perspective on what that world could look like. Keep an open mind as you read it. You'll need one in the future.

This book is simply amazing! Its portrait of the computing world to come (as well as the developing one of today) is both fascinating and horrifying. From nanobots to quantum computers, Kurzweil explains in understandable and engaging prose what the future will bring. While I disagree with his 'LAW of Accelerating Returns'--perhaps 'trend' would be better--it makes no difference. Whether or not the developments he discusses happen in 20 or 40 years isn't very important in my opinion; the simple fact that they will EVENTUALLY occur make the book more than worthwile.

Ray Kurzweil has written a fascinating account of the extrapolation of Moore's Law to the breaking point and beyond. However, what he understands about the digital world he misses in the world of the mind. He does not address the "how" of information processing in the brain. Seduced by the complexity of neural physiology and the analog in the computer world, he does not even speculate on how the human brain with a processor with one thousandth the processing power of the early PCs can handle millions of bits of information let alone original thought.
Most neural physiologists and psychiatrists realize that the conscious part of the brain processes only about 24 bits per second from the millions of bits the senses present.
While I enjoyed the speculation of Kurzweil, he fails to address the most basic of questions - How does the brain do it? What does a thought look like and where is it in the brain? How do you build a memory and where is it? Can I physically find a memory in the brain?
Reading Kurzweil's book with Pinker's How the Mind Works, Penrose's Shadows of the Mind, any of Dennett's efforts on consciousness, and Douglas Hoffstader's Godel, Escher, Bach, would give the reader some perspective on what lies ahead in the man/machine interface.
John Ellingson Madison, WI

I looked in vain for the 1979 book by Christopher Evans, MICRO MILLENNIUM, on Kurzweil's reading list. Although Evans skipped the hundred year predictions, Kurzweil might have used Evans' book as an outline for his Spiritual Machines with only the dates changed. All Kurzweill adds to the earlier book is bells and whistles and also the tooting of his own horn. Unfortunately, Evans died in 1979 so he won't be protesting his omission.
What the author fails to do is substantiate any of his premises re downloading a human brain into a silicone chip or nanotube computer. Doesn't he realize that a download is like a millisecond snapshot of a living process? While the living brain is in constant flux through contact with its quantum milieu, the downloaded brain would be a freeze frame, a one time blueprint of the total picture. How would this downloaded brain receive the constant neuron firings that are input every microsecond into the real brain (floating in enzymatic fluid and nitrous oxide)? His future download would stop cold the genetic mutations fueling evolution, which Kurzweill acknowledges is a natural form of nanotechnology, and which has taken man to his present height.
His metaphor for brain download, of transferring the vinyl record music to the CD, is just plain silly. Analog recorded music does have a different tone and timber from the digital brand; but his metaphor illustrates his simplistic approach of playing the word game to the exclusion of context and meaning. Kurweill's dialogs with Molly (his feminine side) do give comic relief to his pontificating style. If he would openly admit to writing fiction all would be forgiven and he would get his four or five stars.
Like the folly of Ponce de Leon, Kurzweill has found his fountain of youth by escaping from the living nanobot molecules of his hardware body and becoming pure, dead software. Kurzweill has racism toward bodies made of amino acids. He greatly prefers the strong as steel carbon nanotubes; but it is going to be hard to weave his nanotubes into fleshy material as soft as a baby's butt. Simply put, to be human is to be soft and mortal. The proper title for this work would be KURZWEIL'S GOD IN A MACHINE --The Electronic Cloning of a Dissipated Man. But a more graven image has never been articulated -- a less spiritual picture of man has never been painted. His originality smacks of the financial page of the Wall Street Journal.

Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines' is an intelligent look at what the future might be holding for us all. Like other similar titles - Visions by Michio Kaku comes to mind - Kurzweil tries to predict where science will take us. Unlike `Visions' however, this book is considerably more focused on computer technology and artificial intelligence, and I would only recommend it if you're not looking for a much broader answer to the question of where we are headed. Kurzweil never intended to cover other matters, and reading the Prologue will be enough to understand that most of the book will explore the rising of machine intelligence to a level that will surpass the capabilities of the human brain.
Kurzweil starts by describing the exponential growth of computer power, Moore's Law, and transistor-based computing. The present and the future are described until quantum effects start becoming a problem and a completely new kind of technology becomes necessary (some alternatives are mentioned, Quantum computation is of course, mentioned). The book proceeds to more metaphysical subjects, and questions if we can create another intelligence form more intelligent than ourselves. Can the created exceed the creator?
It will then proceed to cover consciousness and feelings; Kurzweil gets philosophical in what in my opinion is one of the book's weakest chapters The methods available to solve a wide range of intelligent problems (when combined with heavy doses of computation) will follow, in a chapter that covers subjects from recursive formulas to neural nets, and of course, enough space is dedicated to Alan Turing, the father of all modern computers.
Part 2 starts with my favourite chapter of this title; Kurzweil discusses how evolution has found a way around the computational limitations of normal neural circuitry. And from nature's lessons we move to ideas about molecular computing harnessing the DNA molecule itself as a practical computing device, now a possibility under investigation. I wish I had this book last year when I was doing some research on general quantum computing for college, Kurzweil fully managed to transmit the impact that future developments in these areas might cause, and the problems that will be caused by ultra-fast parallel computation (especially with cryptography). The port of slow mammalian carbon-based neurons to speedier electronic and photonic equivalents is covered with simplicity, but convincingly.
Next comes the problem of the body. A disembodied mind will quickly get depressed, no matter how powerful. So what kind of bodies should our machines have, or later on, what kind of bodies will they provide for themselves?
Part 2 ends with a few thoughts on the array of tasks that are now performed by computers, lacking sense of humour, talent for small talk and other endearing qualities, but still vital for tasks that previously required human intelligence: How much do we depend on modern technology? If all the computers stopped functioning, would chaos rise? Is our world too based on technology and vulnerable to global disasters?
After 2009, the book truly starts facing the future. You will be shown how extremely cheap and powerful (compared to today's standards) computers will be imbedded in clothing and jewellery, among other items, surrounding us completely. Virtual personalities start emerging, and Kurzweil dares to predict real time translating telephones and even human musicians jamming routinely with cybernetic musicians. Also interesting, I thought, is the possibility of some sort of neo-Luddite movement growing around this time.
Next stage is 2019. By this time, Kurzweil believes that a $1k computing device will be approximately equal to the computational ability of the human brain. Computers should be almost invisible, and will be everywhere. 3D virtual reality will reach good quality levels, and VR displays are embedded in glasses and contacts lenses, providing a new interface (and the main interface) for communication with other persons (via the future version of the Web). Interaction with computers is made through gestures and 2-way natural language. A few thoughts on relationships with automated personalities end the chapter.
By 2029, Kurzweil's predictions turn to direct neural pathways that somehow have perfected some soft of high-bandwidth connection to the human brain. Ultra fast learning à-la-Neo from Matrix in less than 28 years? Kurzweil suspects so. Neural implants become widely available to enhance visual and auditory perception and interpretation, as well as memory and reasoning. People with physical problems and strongly helped by implants. Computers have "read" all available human literature and the discussion about legal rights of computers and what constitutes being human. Machines claim to be conscious.
Around 2099, human thinking starts merging with the world of machine intelligence. There is no clear distinction between humans and computers. Most of the intelligences are not tied to a specific processing unit, but widely spread. This chapter's most interesting aspect is perhaps the discussion about software based humans, when compared to those still using carbon-based neurons. The use of neural implant technology provides enormous augmentation of human perceptual and cognitive abilities, creating some sort of division between first class and second-class humans. Kurzweil implies that those who do not utilize such "enhancements" will be unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with those who do. Being alive no longer means what it used to mean. Life expectancy is no longer a viable term in relation to intelligent, machine-based intelligent beings.
The books ends with a few thoughts on the fate of the whole universe, a part that is probably the weakest of the whole book, extremely pale when compared to Michio Kaku's "Visions" look. Kurzweil might do a good job describing a universe in which artificial intelligence and nanotechnology combine to bring longevity, but failed partially when discussing that longevity and the coming connections of computers with immortality, a subject that deserved a lot more attention and space in this book. Left me wanting more.
You will find this book fascinating if you're particularly interested in what the future holds when it comes to computers. Kurzweil knows his science well and adding a bit of common sense and humour, is enough to result in a very enjoyable title. If the predictions turn to follow the expected timeline, well, frankly I don't care much, and I don't think it's very relevant to discuss it; Most of it will happen precisely as the author puts it, but it might take more or less time. This book is not complex, and has many references and notes; so even people with a poor background in computer science will be able to follow the author's ideas. Of course knowing what's behind it will make your experience a lot richer. You also get a decent glossary, very valuable if you're new to the subject.
Overall, a good book, but lacking depth in some areas (especially machine based existence and immortality). Sometimes too over simplified. Still, check it out and see where we're heading. Combine it with Neuromancer, Visions and a few more technical titles and you will wish you could live 300 years...then again, maybe not. ;-)

A prediction of the future with a strong scientific basis to back it up. This is what sets it apart from most other predictions. To reiterate what others have said about what this book contains, it describes Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and how these may change the world in the future.
It describes how by 2019, computers will have the memory capacity and computational ability of the brain. This will be coupled with computers replacing most of what humans do. Then, by 2029 nanotech will replace humans in production and agriculture. Machines are easily passing the Turing test. Then, by 2099 enough of the brain will be known to create fully conscious machines. We could then merge our brains with them, and live in a virtual body and/or a cybernetic body, effectively achieving near immortality.
As well as this, Kurzweil describes the technologies that will advance and allow us to achieve this. This is where he is weakest, because he does not go into enough depth. His final chapter, "How to build an Intelligent Machine" has some very clever ideas on combbining neural networks with genetic algorithms but does not explain it in enough detail.
Overall, the layman will find it fascinating, but the more technical reader will have wanted something more scientific.

We humans often think of ourselves as a final product of evolution. But what if our evolution has not yet ceased and we have a chance to create a 'close to perfect' creature by merging our bodies with the latest advancements in technology?
Sounds like science-fiction? Well, according to Ray Kurzweil, it is much closer to science and reality than fiction. In his latest creation, "The Age of Spiritual Machines", he describes how over the next couple of decades we will increasingly enhance our bodies and minds using advanced medical technologies and artificial intelligence. By doing so, it will become more and more difficult for us to differentiate humans from machines, and Kurzweil predicts that at some point we will be replaced by conscious silicon-based entities that both think and feel.
I think that it is an interesting way of looking at evolution and Kurzweil suports his argument with various examples of technological advancements such as biological engineering and nano-technology, which will be more refined over the next twenty years or so.
Even though it is somewhat frightening to think of ourselves being replaced by another specie by the end of this century, I think we should embrace technology and "think of those future intelligent machines as our own mind-children" as Hans Moravec of Carnegie-Mellon University suggests.

I will not get into the whole question of whether or not machines as of yet show any signs of real self- consciousness or a ' spiritual life ' as we know it.

I would just like to make one point which it seems to me raises questions about the validity of the whole ' spiritual machine' enterprise.

We are what we are on the basis of our connection with, our need and love for other human beings. A ' spiritual machine' seems to me something like an ' individual's projection' for his own isolated self. It seems to me that the whole idea being set forth here shows a very small and limited conception of what the human situation and condition is, and what it means to really care for others.

Kurzweil describes how the law of accelerating returns will allow us create AI and become immortal within decades. Unfortunately for all of us, increasing clock speed and transitor density doesnt create intelligence. Predicting when a computer will be able to search the chess game tree fast enough to beat Kasparov is far different from predicting when a computer will be able to simulate a human brain.

That being said, this books is still a good read because these innovations will occur one day (assuming the law of accelerating returns doesnt get us killed which is actually pretty likely), but Kurzweil fails by wanting to believe that these AI breakthroughs will happen in his lifetime.

We humans often think of ourselves as a final product of evolution. But what if our evolution has not yet ceased and we have a chance to create a 'close to perfect' creature by merging our bodies with the latest advancements in technology?
Sounds like science-fiction? Well, according to Ray Kurzweil, it is much closer to science and reality than fiction. In his latest creation, "The Age of Spiritual Machines", he describes how over the next couple of decades we will increasingly enhance our bodies and minds using advanced medical technologies and artificial intelligence. By doing so, it will become more and more difficult for us to differentiate humans from machines, and Kurzweil predicts that at some point we will be replaced by conscious silicon-based entities that both think and feel.
I think that it is an interesting way of looking at evolution and Kurzweil suports his argument with various examples of technological advancements such as biological engineering and nano-technology, which will be more refined over the next twenty years or so.
Even though it is somewhat frightening to think of ourselves being replaced by another specie by the end of this century, I think we should embrace technology and "think of those future intelligent machines as our own mind-children" as Hans Moravec of Carnegie-Mellon University suggests.

I will not get into the whole question of whether or not machines as of yet show any signs of real self- consciousness or a ' spiritual life ' as we know it.

I would just like to make one point which it seems to me raises questions about the validity of the whole ' spiritual machine' enterprise.

We are what we are on the basis of our connection with, our need and love for other human beings. A ' spiritual machine' seems to me something like an ' individual's projection' for his own isolated self. It seems to me that the whole idea being set forth here shows a very small and limited conception of what the human situation and condition is, and what it means to really care for others.

Kurzweil describes how the law of accelerating returns will allow us create AI and become immortal within decades. Unfortunately for all of us, increasing clock speed and transitor density doesnt create intelligence. Predicting when a computer will be able to search the chess game tree fast enough to beat Kasparov is far different from predicting when a computer will be able to simulate a human brain.

That being said, this books is still a good read because these innovations will occur one day (assuming the law of accelerating returns doesnt get us killed which is actually pretty likely), but Kurzweil fails by wanting to believe that these AI breakthroughs will happen in his lifetime.

It is a great book covering a comprehensive survey of the current achievement of computer science and predicting the future along the line. There is no ground to argue that the machines will not shape the world in the upcoming two or three decades foreseen by the author. However, the ultimate agenda behind the book that machine intelligence will one day surpass or at least be equivalent to human intelligence is provoking, though not new. The author intentionally get around the traditional argument on mind and consciousness against materialism and mechanism, which I believe should be treated in certain depth once the author decides to touch the question. As a result, this book is rather another propaganda or manifesto of computer science that also concludes the achievement of the past fifty years; the early version of such kind of computer manifestos had been seen more than often in early fifties right after the first computer constructed. The fundamental underlying theory to justify author's brave new world is the author's version of Church-Turing thesis. Not to mention that Church-Turing thesis is more like an empirical statement instead of a proven mathematical theory, the author's version is simply incorrect. The author intentionally, I believe, twists Church-Turing thesis to fit in with his declaration. Moreover, the author's interpretation on Godel's theorems and Penrose's ideas are not all correct, and sometimes are missing the points of their theorems and arguments. Put it simple, this book is an excellent book, without a doubt, providing an over-optimistic view for computer scientists, but it is also a great misleading if one wants to look at the limitation of machines.

This book speculates about both the advance of computer technology in the 21st century and the socio-political response to it. Although it is peppered with a few interesting notions worth skimming, much of the speculation is unreasonable and philosophically naive.

In the first chapter, Kurzweil attempts to lay a sort of theoretical framework for his speculations, which boils down to his belief that Moore's Law is just one instance of a cosmic principle of exponential advance which explains everything from the first second of the universe after the Big Bang to the evolution of life on Earth and now the evolution of technology. The second chapter argues that it is possible for an intelligence to create something more intelligent than itself: just as evolution "intelligently" created us, we will (soon!) create computers which will build machines of far greater cognitive ability than us. It is indeed intriguing to consider that someday machines will outperform humans in many ways, but the book to this point is best skimmed, because there's actually very little substance and a lot of dry, pseudo-intellectual filler.

Chapter 3 examines the philosophical problem that is going to be brought to the forefront by super-advanced computers: what is consciousness, and can machines possess it? Kurzweil unimpressively touches on a handful of schools of thought here (his sentences on Descartes made me wonder if he has read anything on the subject besides pop philosophy), though he does not try to decide between them. Instead, his prediction is social: eventually machines will be accepted as real people -- just as real people will physically merge with technology -- even if that sounds bizarre to us now. This theme comes up again and again, and it proves to be one of the only thought-provoking issues of the book.

Chapters 4 and 5 talk about the field of artificial intelligence, where it has been, and where it needs to go. In a section entitled "The Formula for Intelligence", Kurzweil provides his recipe for the strong AI of the future: recursion, neural nets, and genetic algorithms -- all taking hints from the reverse engineering of the human brain. This wishful thinking is one of the Achilles' heels of this book. For a software entrepreneuer, Kurzweil is strangely blind to the evidence: software is hardly becoming more complex or "intelligent" at all, let alone exponentially. Today's software systems are perhaps bigger but not significantly "smarter" than systems of past decades, and software quality continues to barely meet the lowest of expectations. Despite Moore's Law and the faith that it will continue to provide more and more cycles in the hardware world, progress in the world of software seems, to this software engineer of 15 years, to be nearly a flat line, not an exponential curve. Just compare how many hundreds of man-years have gone into the lastest version of Windows, versus what it would take to design and implement Kurzweil's ideal of software that is able to write more powerful software.

Part of the problem may be that Kurzweil simply ignores the fields of cognitive psychology and epistemology, which are in their infancy. He does not seem to even be aware of the issues in these fields which would have to be solved (probably by geniuses) in order to create "strong AI." Instead, the solutions he predicts are purely materialistic: brain deciphering, massively parallel hardware, and genetic algorithms.

Part 2 of the book focuses on potential technologies. The most powerful computers he speculates about are quantum computers, and he doesn't waste any time before asserting that someday we will be able to download the entirety of a brain into a quantum computer, so that the computer will in effect have a clone of that person's mind. Kurzweil, in his materialism, does not seem to even be aware that there is a philosophical argument that this is impossible. He also speculates about nanotechnologies and how they will eventually give us a unprecented ability to manipulate physical reality.

Part 3 of the book is comprised of specific predictions for 2009, 2019, 2029, and 2099. This book was written in 1999, and we can already see that some of his 2009 predictions are either just simple extensions of things we were starting to see in 1999, while others wildly miss the mark, such as: "the majority of reading is done on displays", "the majority of text is created using continuous speech recognition", and "intelligent roads are in use, primarily for long-distance travel." That Kurzweil could be so far off in his 10 year predictions does not bode well for his 20-, 30-, and 100-year predictions. Indeed, his predictions for 2019 sound like a science fiction novel, and of the ones that sound plausible I think he must be off by at least 30 years. His speculations for 2029 are just fantastic. In general he seems to "predict" based on the assumption that new technologies will be deployed as soon as they are available, underestimating a myriad of resisting factors: legal, political, social, market, scientific, etc.

Ultimately this book can be fun for skimming and raises a couple of thought-provoking issues, but as speculating about technology more than 10 years in the future is necessarily a foolish activity, there's plenty of foolishness to be found in here.

Although this book didn't really live up to expectations, I will at least say it provided an entertaining read. If you're already familiar with contemporary sci-fi you won't find too many new ideas here. A lot of the ground in this book has already been covered in works like "The Diamond Age" (Neal Stephenson - nanotech opus), "Neuromancer" (William Gibson - disembodied ID shifting), "Ender's Game" (Orson Scott Card - automated education) or "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" (Phillip K. Dick - tricked out humans). Of course the main difference here is that Mr. Kurzweil is not a sci-fi author but a proven inventor and entrepeneur. He acknowledges the 'speculative non-fiction' aspects of the book but at times gets carried away with his predictions and occasionally sounds like a hokey traveling salesman.

Throughout the book he claims some degree of expertise in such broad ranging interests as nanotechnology, neurology, interactive entertainment, visual arts, biology, anthropology, philosophy, ethics and sexuality. Granted the material draws on many of these disciplines but his arguments often come to conclusions that simply have no scientific basis. This book, published in 1999 suggested that our brains will be "scanned" in the near future. The concept sounds very Ghost-In-The-Shell and has about as much plausibility as a typical Japanese animation. An article appearing in the October 2004 issue of Discover asked the question, "Will anyone ever decode the human brain"? The author, much less optimistic than Kurweil noted that "No conceivable technology will be subtle enough to discern all the memories, emotions, and meanings aroused in us by our perceptions." He made this assumption based on the fleeting nature of the actual neurons in your brain that change and evolve rapidly every day. To equate this mush with bits and bytes, jpegs and mp3's, is a little naive and ridiculously optimistic. Hopefully it will happen someday, maybe even in our lifetime. Until then though, you'd be better off reading real fiction...

This book's (almost) saving grace is Kurzweil himself. He's obviously having fun writing this book and presumably hopes to raise some eyebrows. Even when that comes off as legacy-building ("Remember - you read that here first!") it's oddly charming. Inserting himself into a dialogue with his fictitious creation "Molly" is at first obnoxious, condescending even, but by the end it's actually pretty amusing.

That said, if you're holding out for some deep insight as to what a "spiritual machine" might be, I'll save you the trouble by telling you that the author's angle (in the two pages it's mentioned) is that spirituality basically boils down to biological phenomena. Sorry, that it. Apparently that was good enough for Mr. Data so it's also good enough Mr. Kurzweil. Computers will one day magically start loving - once they're smart enough of course. In the mean time, we can gloss over the fact that subjective AI is still a non entity in our world.

Want to know why many people fear and loathe technology? Read anything Kurzweil has written. This book draws the incredibly arrogant conclusion that just because computers will soon surpass human being in computing power, they will become superior thinkers and spiritual beings.
What a load of crap. Tell me, who will write the software that exceeds human intelligence? The machines themselves? Or perhaps the geniuses of modern computing, who can't even write code to shut down a modern PC without crashing it 20 percent of the time.
This book is a catalog for sci-fi horrors. It happily forecasts a world with no privacy, filled with carbon-based morons even less willing than today to create works of art or use the one organ that sets us apart from other beasts.
But,hey, it will be a great century for blow-'em up computer games.

Great explanations of technical concepts that will influence the future by an incredible entrepreneur. Cool info on the beginnings of Luddites and some possible revolutionary influences on the brain and music. In the future... entertainment = VR, philosophical question = What is human/alive/sentient, computer = ubiquitious network, education = VR and chiplants, business = creation of new knowledge with educators as most important, arts = done by machines, health = longer life w/ implants/transplants/replants. What about ethical consulting, Ray ??? Interesting proposal for Kurzweil's Law of accellerating returns. Computers think, but humans learn much faster than artificial neural nets, hmmmm.

Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines" goes deep into what life might be like in the ever-so-almost-there future. The way in which Kurzweil diagrams and describes our probable lives is very understandable but unacceptable at times. It is hard to grasp and cope with another entities' perspective of our existence, yet it is also very necessary to be presented with this view of what is ahead. So I must say that I spent most of the time trying to digest what Kurzweil was explicitly predicting, yet I enjoyed most of his radical statements. The format in which it was written was very helpful. At the end of each chapter Kurzweil would have an imaginary conversation with the reader, thus clearing up any questions that might have surfaced in your mind. If you want to try and comprehend what will become of the human race as a whole and the grip that technology will have on us, I most definitely recommend that you summerge yourself in this shiny book.

Like another reader on this list, I started rereading the book as soon as I finished it. I enjoyed the upbeat, playful tone, and I enjoyed his extrapolation of current trends into the future. I can see us merging with our technology now. Just walk down a street and look at the people talking on cel phones or whizzing down the sidewalk on their electric wheelchairs. We're merging. And this merging is just going to keep getting faster. I for one am happy to have some idea about how this merging process is likely to evolve, and I feel like Kurtzweil's book helped me out.
Kurtzweil made me feel lucky to be alive now. If this is the future, bring it on! And if it ain't, it sure was a fun read.

The first two chapters I found to be interesting, particularly the equation of evolution with technology. After that intial proposition was flushed out I found the book to be boring. I am not at all against the progress of technology, but I found his answers against the misuse of the technology lacking. And while his industry knowledge is varied, and his attempts into philosphy interesting overall he does not address several key issues. I fear his optimistic world-view of the future is rooted in an illusion of the present world-situation for more than 4 billion people in countries where the technological power of the latest Pentium XIIII billion is not the driving force. If he is right about the inevitablity and increasingly rapid march of technology (and I think he is) I should hope that there is an equal increasingly rapid march of humanism. His typical answer seems to be that "in the future technology will solve ... X". Historically not only has that sort of thinking been determential to those of the current generation who are simply used to fuel some utopia of the next, but it betrays the power of the vision that he holds. In short he is on to something, he is smart man who understands technology in a very organic and useful way, but there is so much more that could have been addressed. To that effect considering the space he take to flesh out his predictions, and then essentially restate them, or plug his own innovations, it hardly seems a pragmatic matter but one simply based a lack of will. Which seems to me the scarest prospect of all.

Original review posted 2005; now we are approaching 2010.

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Ray Kurzweil is a genius, no doubt. But geniuses are not always right, which should not surprise anyone. Henry Ford was a world champion at building cars, and a total crackpot about the Jews. Ray Kurzweil created the software for some of the best keyboards ever made, AND he made big contributions to speech-recognition.

But, somehow, in this book, he manages to confuse software with hardware.

Everybody involved with computers knows that the hardware is improving at a Very Satisfactory Pace. Software? Hmmm... Software has to be written by human beings....

Rather than talk more blather about the Singularity, I will just pose this question --- let's call it a MicroTriumph. What kind of a machine could perform the MicroTriumph Test?

THE TEST: Place a poodle before the machine, and ask "Is this a dog or a cat?" The machine must answer correctly, or fail. Then ask, "What color is this dog?" Again, the machine must answer correctly, or fail. Repeat the experiment with various animals. As a finale, put a boy or a girl in front of the machine, and ask it whether this is a boy or a girl.

I think most people involved in AI will realize that this is an INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TASK. It's a very good example at what computers do very poorly --- and what people do "without thinking." In order to pass the "MicroTriumph Test," a company will literally have to spend billions and billions of dollars --- not on the CPU, mates, but on the peripherals and the software.

Gee, it's 2009 already. All those who feel that their computers have become noticeably "smarter" in the last 9 years, raise your hands. (No! No Vista victims!) :-)

Since I get into contact with the Vinge's singularity concept I developed a very great attraction for the matter.

Ray Kurzweil explains it in a easy, not alarming and optimistic way.

After reading The Age of Spiritual Machines and his later book the Singularity is near I can not understand how somebody can live without knowing about this potential threat and at the same time potential solution to mankind problems.

Kurzweil has been getting a lot of press lately and rightfully so. This man is on the edge of modern thinking. I has a good understanding of where computer technology is at and how it will advance. If your really interested in where technology is going and want to see what the future has in store you must get this. It's written in a way where you don't have to read it straight through either, so you can skip various sections on historical fact and read what's coming up. Great stuff!

this is becomming the book that first dared to look the future in the eye and share it with the puplic and will be a classic over time
its not a filosofical book and thats not his job to be. All he does is predicting the future based on logical knowlogde on the nowadays tecnology and a birdperspective look on history
not a litteraly masterpiece but thats inrelevent because of the very relevent subject

What is important and valuable about this book is not its own well-researched and informed story of AI and its positive hopes for a bright AI future. But the new perspective on being human and on machines that you will have after you read it. Every good book ought to remain in you, to change you deeply. This one may well do so.

Before reading this book, I hadn't really thought much about the consequences of Moores Law (the doubling of computer power every 18-24 months), nano-technology, and other trends. Kurzweil makes a believable case for the emergence of computers that are not only smarter than humans, but by the end of this century, a single computer will be smarter than billions of human beings combined. I think the most tenuous part of his argument is the notion that we will be able to map the human brain sufficiently to be able to download our minds into computers. But if he's right, we will become immortal, unimaginably intelligent super-beings. A mind-boggling but actually plausible picture of the future. This book will definitely open your eyes and get you thinking.

In "The Age of Spiritual Machines", Mr. Kurzweil presents an interesting argument about the rapidly advancing technologies surrounding Artificial Intelligence as of date. But, his base ideas are flawed. Being an AI researcher, it seems natural that his understanding of cosmology would not be perfect. Yet, at the same time, to base his theorem of advancing technologies on the precept that the timeframe of the universe is uniquely linked with the technological advancement of a bunch of organisms is utterly preposterous. A better understanding of Quantum theory by the author would have made this a much better read, in the process confusing less people when they found out the real reasons for the advancement of Time. I give this book three stars because I enjoyed the writers style, but at the same time, the misrepresentation of information was disturbing.

I bought The Age of Spiritual Machines for one reason alone: the use of the term "spiritual" in the title. Having read his earlier The Age of Intelligent Machines, I was curious about what the author could possibly mean by a "spiritual machine." What an onerous task it was! On page 6 Kurzweil tells us that in the near future computers vastly more intelligent than we are will "claim to have spiritual experiences," adding, "And people - those still using carbon-based neurons or otherwise - will believe them."
After that initial mention of "spiritual," one is compelled to read to page 149 before the issue is ever raised again. The interval is filled with the kind of computational history that Kurzweil knows a great deal about and relates in well-written fashion but he adds little to the dreams about the future of machine intelligence set down decades ago by writers like Hans Moravec and Marvin Minsky. His own principal addition is certain "Laws" comparable to but somewhat more sophisticated that "Moore's Law," notably "The Law of Accelerating Returns: As order exponentially increases, time exponentially speeds up (that is, the time interval between salient events grows shorter as time passes.)" By his own testimony, his prior predictions about the exponential increase in computational power have been pretty good, so one can hardly quibble with him over his predictions - up to a point. Pages 261-280 consist of a Time Line beginning with the singularity before the Big Bang and ending with 2099 with the addition of an indeterminate date, "Some many millenniums hence . . ." when "Intelligent beings consider the fate of the Universe."
I SUBMIT, HOWEVER, THAT ONE OF HIS PREDICTIONS IS SO EGREGRIOUSLY WRONG THAT IT FATALLY FLAWS THE BOOK. That is that by 2049 "Machines claim to be conscious. These claims are largely accepted." The flaw here is that no one has proposed any credible theory of how consciousness can be produced by the human brain, let alone by an artificial one. Kurzweil is accepting the assumption made by so may of his co-authors in The Age of Intelligent Machines, such as Daniel Dennett, Sherry Turkle, Douglas Hofstadter, Marvin Minsky, Seymour Papert, Edward Feigenbaum, Allen Newell, and George Gilder that given sufficient computational and memory power, consciousness will simply pop up like a bagel from the toaster. In all spiritual traditions, from most aboriginal religions to non-theistic Buddhism to Vedanta to neo-Platonism to the mysticism of the Abrahamic religions it is presumed that consciousness is primordial, not derivative from mindless matter. Furthermore, as I have pointed out in my books, The Mind Paradigm and The Android Myth, intelligence - the ability to solve problems - is not the same as thinking. Just examine the history of human thought or your own personal experience and you will realize that, however unconscious problem solving may be, no one has EVER devoted brainpower or computer power to anything that did not first appear as an anomaly in consciousness. Consciousness is what gives rise to awe and curiosity. There is no algorithm for curiosity, only algorithms to solve problems evoked by human curiosity.
It is almost laughable when, in those 2 or 3 pages that Kurzweil devotes to machine spirituality, he seems to think that spirituality and sensuality are virtually synonymous, so he gives examples of virtual sex and various experiments in computer art and musical composition. What he fails to realize is that conscious human beings wrote the programs that allowed the computers to invent "art works" and "music" and that the creativity they displayed meant nothing to the computers but only to the conscious human beings that eventually looked at or heard the results.
Finally, Kurzweil fails to realize that spirituality is in essence the very opposite of computation. In every ancient text from the Upanishads to The Cloud of Unknowing to Wayne Teasdale's The Mystic Heart, the Way of the Spirit is hindered, not helped, by the chatter of the computational mind.

If anyone who reads this desires to predict the future, I highly recommend incorporating your specified field of employment in your prediction. In fact you should probably write a book explaining why the certain field that you so happen to be involved in will most certainly have a huge impact on the future. Take it from me I'm an expert on this stuff. Mr. Kurzweil is obviously a genius of the highest caliber and although not included as suggested reading in his book he would highly recommend two books that may aid other ambitious authors. His first new recommendation to any author with the intention of securing their job is "Virus Of The Mind: The New Science of the Meme" by Richard Brodie. This book should help the ambitious author devise a sure-fire method guaranteed to convince their audience of how truly important they will become in the future. Secondly, "The Art of War" by Sun Tsu will teach the ambitious author how to use their newly acquired understanding of the Meme. Unfortunately my book, "RichieRobotic: The One and Only True God" Is not selling well due to poor distribution.

Kurzweil certainly has high hopes for the future, but his hopes are grounded nowhere in the present. He oversimplifies everything from evolution to the human brain. His visions are nothing more than impractical science fiction.
I don't think anyone doubts that someday computers will have the processing power of the human brain, but that does not equate intelligence. Our brain is probably the most evolved thing on the planet, and mankind would be foolish to think they can improve on that in the span of a century.
There is far too much we don't understand about ourselves to make the majority of this book a reality in this century.
Overall, the book was entertaining, but not too informative.

Ray Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines is an enthralling look at the future of computers and technology. While much of the book is speculative, Kurzweil both entertains and educates as he explains his claims about the future. A thought-provoking read for anyone interested in computers & technology.

The subject starts off with a brief history lesson about the processes of computer evolution. Quickly Kurzweil moves on to thought provoking, almost to the point of disturbing possibilities about our future interactions with machines. As he continues to extend us further and further the realization hits that we may someday find our species becoming the intelligent and spiritual machines that he predicts earlier in the book I found this book to be a methodically staged argument about the possibilities of living long enough to witness a transformation from the biological to the mechanical. Not particularly easy to follow start to finish and some parts way over the top but well worth the trip.

Quite simply a fun read. Do understand this is a "Futurology" book, and one should not expect to find strong supporting evidence that strengthen his claims. However, he does provide reasonably acceptable support for the "Law of Time and Chaos" and "Law of Accelerating Returns." The vast majority of his contentions in the book's first half are highly controversial; but nevertheless well discussed and stimulating. The book's appendix, bibliography, and website addresses provide vast information for continued reading and thinking.
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-Tyler Emerson

An interesting, if somethings facile, look a the blurring lines between human and computer intelligence. The research is good, and the writing style clear, making it a good primer on the subject, with lots of though-provoking meat on the bones of the argument.
A computer wouldn't have made the grammatical mistakes the author does. Ironic, eh?

I think Ray Kurzweil is a technological optimist and this book, having not read any of his newer material, is a rewarding read. I was impressed with the knowledge and foresight of the author to address the questions imposed by the book, but was also reticent to completely embrace everything in there becuase like most technological optimists, Ray Kurzweil wants to appreciate the fringe benefits of full market adoption without considering the transition towards a reality discussed by himself and others in his field.

the interplay between the artificial characters animating functional conversations as we ascribe to characters we percieve in real life was well done, as adhoc examples of interfacing with artificial personalities, or multiple personalities of the same user, and other bizarre considerations most of us have yet to think of until we flip through a copy of The Age of Spiritual Machines. Ray has a website with other great materials to go through for people further interested in his work, which among other things, involved electronic instruments and how many became aware of him.

Absolutely fascinating. I was of the mind that computers will resent our (mankinds) inefficiencies and bad behavior once they can think for themselves. This book gives me hope that we will far exceed our wildest limitations.

In this book Kurzweil assumes that because nanotechnology means everything might be produced for free, it will be given away for the "benefit" of humanity. But when did capitalism - particularly in its American form - give anything away for free?
Kurzweil is not an economist or a sociologist. He ignores entirely the proprietary aspects of the new technologies, of which he is likely to be both a creator and a beneficiary.
Only the most optimistic will enjoy reading this book.

Ray Kurzweil is my best writer. I love his books. He writes in a clear way and he is really persuasive. This book is the best book I have read about the future of artificial intelligence. It teaches you so many interesting topics on computational neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience. This book has been written in 1999 and some of its first predictions are about to become true in 2006. I believe in all of the Kurzweil's theories because I am writing and programming my undergraduate thesis on computational neuroscience. I am sure you will enjoy the book. It is worth the price!