10 Questions for Ray Kurzweil

1mashoman Says:

Feb 17, 2012 - you are certainly whiff of fresh ear...

impsick Says:

Feb 22, 2012 - Ray is badass.

HomuncuIus Says:

Mar 7, 2012 - Ray Kurzweil is insane

UberNoodleX Says:

Mar 7, 2012 - "Why are you so optimistic?"You mean, 'why do you dare to dream?' 'why do you question the status quo?' 'why is conversation with you never just about the weather and grandchildren?' 'why do you threaten to pop my bubble of intellectual and ideological saftey?'BECAUSE YOU NEED IT.

UberNoodleX Says:

Mar 7, 2012 - "Ray Kurzweil is insane."If you went back in time even 60 years, and told an average person what technology is common today, they'd have thought you insane as well.

XspaghettimonsterX Says:

Mar 9, 2012 - This scares me.

talyesin3 Says:

Mar 15, 2012 - Ray Kurzweil : a neurotic who is so afraid of death that he take dozens of pills everyday, hoping he will be immortal one day!!Moreover , he thinks this will be possible for everybody,and that we we be a mix of human and technology.This is delirium.

Krb68691 Says:

Mar 15, 2012 - Ray Kurzweil isn't insane. Everyone said the same things about every other person far ahead of their time, have a look at how the public viewed Tesla. It's funny how people don't realize that fact. Sure, maybe Kurzweil might be off on the time frame with some of his predictions, but his ideas are just extrapolations. Everything he says is possible, and will probably become reality.

roarshackdotcom Says:

Mar 16, 2012 - Religion is delirium. Ray has his eyes open enough to see our potential if we apply our technological tools to our most serious problems. Some say he's overly optimistic. I think not.

talyesin3 Says:

Mar 17, 2012 - The belief in the power of technology IS the new religion for him It promises he will not die.Any introduction of technology in the human body ( gmo , transplants, and so on ) leads to many problems.Life has evolved over billions of years but he thinks to replace biology in a few decades.Kurzweil 's ideas are insane dreams.Moreover , he avoids to tell about the kind of society it would be".Brave new world"society would be nice compared to his future world.

juggliac Says:

Mar 19, 2012 - Well, Ray has made a lot of prediction sbased on these curves in the past, and he has predicted correct, that's also why he's been such a great inventor. You also have to realize that his predictions are in fact conservative, even for being in such short time frames, as he never even takes into account the increasing rate of exponential growth. I think the fact that the rate of technology hasn't slowed even during the depression is evidence enough this will continue.

Neueregel Says:

Mar 22, 2012 - he is not afraid, he just takes precautions and prophylaxis'

gtaatmiami Says:

Mar 23, 2012 - How about you start educating yourself about microbiology and nanotechnology and you will see it is actually possible. He was also able to cure himself from diabetes drinking all those dozens of pills so he must have done something right. You sound like someone 150 years ago saying "how can you possibly have a box that transmits live video signals globally? this is delirium"

huskerdeux1 Says:

Apr 1, 2012 - I don't doubt Ray's vision of the future. What I doubt is an illuminati and/or world government that will permit such revolutionary growth and achievement to occur. It is not in the planet's interest to increase the lifespan of its population, thus overextending our ability to provide necessary resources. People must die sooner than later--preferably after they've paid into the system but before retrieving any benefits--in order for the planet to remain sustainable.

Waredwr Says:

Apr 11, 2012 - Deaths don't necessarily need to increase as people age, as people become more educated and well off they have less kids, balancing populations, thus less need for resources. This has been seen in the west as populations stagnate, while Botswana or The Congo as an example have extremely large birth rates due to the low education and technology. Positive Malthusian checks have been irrelevant as of late, while the negative (as discussed above) seem to hold more weight.

ausairman Says:

Apr 12, 2012 - I think he's right, but off with the timing. The number of synapses in the brain is about 10^15, firing thousands of times per second. We're conservatively talking about 10^20Hz required to emulate a normal brain. A typical research institute super computer is currently at about 10^12Hz. In 30 years we can optimistically, based on an exponent, expect handheld device power of around 10^18 at best; less than a 100th of what is needed to achieve no more than any human can today our "1.0" brains.

ausairman Says:

Apr 12, 2012 - Supposing now that a typical closet-sized super computer is 1000 times as powerful as said future handheld device, you might arrive at somewhere about 10 times the raw processing power of a human brain. Add to that advantages in memory over humans, and you have a really smart dude. So that's 30 years from now, at the earliest, and we can make "a really smart dude" even by Kurzweil's own model. Not exactly a singularity...

ausairman Says:

Apr 12, 2012 - I say 50 years from now, just throwing it out there...

maxgunn555 Says:

Apr 16, 2012 - 'just throwing it out there'

LegendLength Says:

Apr 20, 2012 - I totally agree with everything you say and I'm as transhumanist as you'll get ... BUT ... I think we need to try and stay extremely conservative with estimates when presenting things like this to the general public.For one thing simply might not pan out like we predict. i.e. the exponential curves may flatten due to things like reaching the atomic level in CPUs. Let's hope there's not too many hiccups though. I'm not getting any younger :)

tastelesstouch Says:

Apr 20, 2012 - I am reading the Singularity is near and I must say that Ray's research is very interesting but yes it is very optimistic and at times naive. Now by saying he is optimistic doesn't mean he doesn't have a right to say what is possible its just that he is making very precise predictions based on our current progress. However it is a fact that oil will run out quite and when that happens it will put a screeching halt on not only technology but humanity's progress as a civilization.

Poloniaas Says:

May 18, 2012 - the interviewer is trying very hard not to laugh. >.<

TheTramsen Says:

May 24, 2012 - naw, is technology too scary for you?

Poloniaas Says:

May 24, 2012 - SMD my friend.

TheBeautyofTrance Says:

May 26, 2012 - what ray is saying is practically common sense. You don't have to be a genius to see that technology is growing faster and faster...