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Ray Kurzweil

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Ray Kurzweil
Kurzweil in 2005
Born
Raymond Kurzweil

(1948-02-12) February 12, 1948 (age 76)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S.)
Occupations
  • Author
  • Entrepreneur
  • Futurist
  • Inventor
EmployerGoogle
Spouse
Sonya Rosenwald
​
(m. 1975)​
[1]
Children2
Awards
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil (born February 12, 1948 in Queens, New York City) is an American author, entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist.

Kurzweil wrote seven books (five of them were national bestsellers[2][3]) about topics like health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, immortality, the technological singularity, and futurism. He speaks to people and gives speeches at conferences like DEMO, SXSW, and TED. He also maintains the news website KurzweilAI.net. It has more than three million readers per year.[4] He has a sibling, a son (Ethan Kurzweil), and a daughter (Amy Kurzweil).

Kurzweil works at Google since 2012.[5] He is a "director of engineering".[5]

Notable predictions

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Kurzweil made 147 predictions about the future since the 1990s.[5] He has a prediction accuracy rate of 86%.[5]

Past

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Predictions from 1990: A computer will defeat a world chess champion by 1998.[3] This prediction was wrong because it already happened in 1997.[3][6] Personal Computers (PCs) will can answer queries by accessing information wirelessly via the Internet by 2010.[3] That became true.[3] Exoskeletal limbs will let the disabled walk by the early 2000s.[3] That became true.[3]

Predictions from 1999: People will can talk to their computer to give them commands by 2009.[3] That became true.[3] Computer displays will be built into eyeglasses for augmented reality by 2009.[3] That became true.[3]

Predictions from 2005: Virtual solutions will be able to do real-time language translation into text that will appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses in the 2010s.[3] That became true.[3]

Future

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  • In the 2020s: Nanobots will fight most diseases.[3] Human eating can be replaced by nanosystems.[3] There will be self-driving cars.[3] Humans will not be allowed to drive on highways anymore.[3]
  • By 2027: Accurate computer simulations of all parts of the human brain will exist.[7]
  • By 2029: AI will pass a valid Turing test and will achieve human levels of intelligence.[5] Computers will have emotional intelligence.[8] Computers will have human level intelligence.[5]
  • In the early 2030: There will be a basic income in the developed world.[9]
  • In the 2030s: Humans can connect their neocortex to a cloud.[5] Some technology will be invented that can go inside a brain and help the memory.[5] Virtual reality (VR) will feel 100% real.[3]
  • In the late 2030s: Humans can upload their mind.[3] There will be a worldwide basic income.[9]
  • In the 2040s: Non-biological intelligence will be a billion times higher than biological intelligence.[3]
  • By 2045: The technological singularity will start.[5] Humans will can multiply their intelligence a billion times by linking wirelessly from our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in a cloud.[3] Computers will be about one billion times more intelligent than all human brains on earth together.[8] Humans will can live forever.[10]
  • By 2072: Picotechnology will be possible.[11]
  • By 2099: Machines will get equal legal status with humans.[11] Humans will meet other beings mostly in virtual environments.[11] There will be very few organic humans.[11] Femtoengineering might be possible.[11]
  • In a few centuries: Computer intelligence will be higher than human intelligence in all areas.[12]
  • Thousands of years from now: "Intelligently (emotional) beings consider the fate of all the Universe."[13]

Books

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Non-fiction

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Fiction

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  • Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine (2019)

References

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  1. ↑ Rozen, Leah (1987-03-09). "Talk May Be Cheap, but Ray Kurzweil Stands to Make Millions by Yakking to His Voice Computer". Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-02-14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ↑ "Ray Kurzweil biography | KurzweilAI". www.kurzweilai.net. Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 Diam, Peter H.; is; MD (2015-01-26). "Ray Kurzweil's Mind-Boggling Predictions for the Next 25 Years". Singularity Hub. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  4. ↑ "Ray Kurzweil biography". KurzweilAINetwork. Archived from the original on 5 February 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 "Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045". Futurism. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  6. ↑ Tan, Alan (2020-10-13). "Singularity may not require AGI". Medium. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  7. ↑ Lamont, Ian (2007-11-13). "The Kurzweil interview, continued: Portable computing, virtual reality, immortality, and strong vs. narrow AI". Computerworld. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Goldman, Interview by Andrew (2013-01-25). "Ray Kurzweil Says We're Going to Live Forever". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Schwartz, Ariel. "Google futurist and director of engineering: Basic income will spread worldwide by the 2030s". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  10. ↑ Martin, Sean (2017-03-20). "Secret of ETERNAL LIFE? We will know what it is by 2029, says Google chief". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Kurzweil, Raymond (1999). The Age of Spiritual Machines.
  12. ↑ Kurzweil, Raymond (1990). The Age of Intelligent Machines. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262111218.
  13. ↑ The Age of Spiritual Machines

Other websites

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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ray Kurzweil
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ray Kurzweil.

Videos (selection)

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