humanlifereview.com
2025-04-11
Computer scientist Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity Is Near was a landmark in technological thought. In that book, Kurzweil summed up the progress of computer and other forms of technology in order to formulate a vision for the future of human beings in an increasingly tech-heavy world. Shortly before the middle of the 21st century, Kurzweil famously predicted, humans will merge with machines. By that time of convergence (the Singularity), machine intelligence will have so far outstripped human intelligence that humans will gradually abandon their biological frames and upload their consciousnesses into deathless silicate and other non-biology-based networks.
When I first read The Singularity Is Near nearly two decades ago, much of it sounded like science fiction. To give just one example, Kurzweil argued in that 2005 volume that nanobots--tiny machines visible only under a microscope--would one day flood human bloodstreams, eliminating diseases with pinpoint accuracy and thereby extending the lifespan of the human body to Methuselah-like realms.