The Singularity Is Nearer

When We Merge with AI

By: Ray Kurzweil

Narrated by: Adam Barr

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come

Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public.

In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil 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; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling 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 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.

The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with illustrations and graphs from the book.

Big ideas and bold optimistic vision

He backs up his insights with lots of data. Worth the listen even though I didn’t love the narration.

Well, organized relevant. And insightful

With as many books on this topic as this author has written I was concerned that this was going to be just be a copy paste of the previous books. It definitely was not. It was full of new and relevant insights, taking developments since his last book into consideration and expanding deeper than he had before in previous books. I found this book to be very enjoyable and helpful Not just as an informative source, but also in helping refine. An augment. My own ideas on how to stay relevant and the benefit from all the coming changes. This was an overall great book. Well written and extremely relevant.

Wow

Ray Kurzweil’s insights continue to blow my mind… but this time I’m finding myself eager for us to “just get there already.” A flame has been lit under my plebeian ass. However, I’m left wondering what people like me can even do—here and now—to facilitate the cultural shift required to integrate AI into the human experience.

Speculative and imaginative.

Redundant and wordy. The narrator was flat and machinelike, almost droning. The overall points with examples did not require this long a book, and references to previous works seemed self promoting.

A journey into the evolution of our brains

Really unbelievable body of work portraying the revolutionary changes we as a species will be going through in a very short time. Fascinating and thought provoking!