Biological and technological evolution “is a spiritual process,” says this leading futurist. “Entities become more godlike, never reaching that ideal but moving in that direction exponentially.” Watch excerpts from our interview with Ray Kurzweil.
5 Responses to “Ray Kurzweil Extended Interview”
Leave a Reply
Please note that the THIRTEEN editorial staff reserves the right to not post comments it deems to be inappropriate and/or malicious in nature, as well as edit comments for length, clarity and fairness. No solicitations or advertisements will be allowed. Users may link to other Web sites relevant to discussion, but most often links to commercial Web sites will not be permitted.




First time I have heard Ray discuss religion but it was pretty interesting. I am unsure exactly how accurate Ray Kurzweil is likely to be as regards the timescale he sets for the singularity, namely 2045. What I do believe is that he is correct as far as exponential growth trends he discusses in this clip are concerned. In my view what this means is that singularity or no singularity the integration of non biological processing power into the human brain has to be a forgone conclusion. You only have to look at how attached we are to iPads, iPhones, Netbooks Etc to realise the path we have embarked upon and its inevitably outcome. Regardless of whether we reverse engineer the brain it is clear that in the near furure we will be vastly more powerfull than we are now by a factor of hundreds if not thousands of times. For my own research I studied the rate of progress and the timeline of discoveries over the last 1000 years and I have posted the information on my website …
The role of exponential growth in technology is crucial in a number of ways but I firmly believe it is one of the reasons we will ultimately win the war on aging. Ray Kurzweil, myself and many others continually try to explain the role of exponential growth so here goes with my attempt to get the point across. Regardless of how it is looked at I simply can’t see that any argument against the exponential growth in technology can possibly make sense. This is because we need look only at the past the rate of progress to see that it has always been continually accelerating. …
How can we know that a ‘computer’ is self really aware? Expressing that with words, will just be expressing that with words..nothing more.
He says that it can appear human, but appearance does not equal being.
We can project that idea and base it on emotions it can show, moral it can express, even shape morals, but..to be really self aware, I think that unique , biological and chemical experience and the fear to lose it (dying) as something important and the core of one self that makes us unique will only be available for humans.
I’d like to see an interview with Paul Frank. Enough of this cyber-rubbish.
I’d like to see an interview with Dr. Paul Farmer, perhaps a debate. I can tell you right now who would be the winner , hands down. Enough of this cyber-trash.
Handy article, thank you very much