The Singularity Is Near
2005 non-fiction book by Ray Kurzweil / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology is a 2005 non-fiction book about artificial intelligence and the future of humanity by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Author | Ray Kurzweil |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publisher | Viking |
Publication date | September 2005 |
Pages | 652 |
ISBN | 978-0-670-03384-3 |
OCLC | 57201348 |
153.9 | |
LC Class | QP376 .K85 |
Preceded by | The Age of Spiritual Machines |
Followed by | How to Create a Mind |
The book builds on the ideas introduced in Kurzweil's previous books, The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990) and The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999). In the book, Kurzweil embraces the term "the singularity", which was popularized by Vernor Vinge in his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity."[1]
Kurzweil describes his law of accelerating returns which predicts an exponential increase in technologies like computers, genetics, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence. Once the singularity has been reached, Kurzweil says that machine intelligence will be infinitely more powerful than all human intelligence combined. The singularity is also the point at which machines' intelligence and humans would merge; Kurzweil predicts this date: "I set the date for the Singularity—representing a profound and disruptive transformation in human capability—as 2045".[2]
A sequel book, The Singularity Is Nearer, is scheduled to be released in 2024.