Ray Kurzweil - Age Of Spiritual Machines

289 Pages·2007·5.06 MB·English

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We are the last.
The last generation to be unaugmented.
The last generation to be intellectually alone.
The last generation to be limited by our bodies.

We are the first.
The first generation to be augmented.
The first generation to be intellectually together.
The first generation to be limited only by our imaginations.

We stand both before and after, balancing on the razor edge of the Event
Horizon of the Singularity. That this sublime juxtapositional tautology
has gone unnoticed until now is itself remarkable.

We're so exquisitely privileged to be living in this time, to be born
right on the precipice of the greatest paradigm shift in human history,
the only thing that approaches the importance of that reality is finding
like minds that realize the same, and being able to make some connection
with them.

If these books have influenced you the same way that they have us, we
invite your contact at the email addresses listed below.

Enjoy,

Michael Beight, [email protected]

Steven Reddell, [email protected]
Here are some new links that we’ve found interesting:

KurzweilAI.net
News articles, essays, and discussion on the latest topics in
technology and accelerating intelligence.

SingInst.org
The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence: A
think tank devoted to increasing Humanity’s odds of
experiencing a safe, beneficial Singularity. Many
interesting articles on such topics as Friendly AI,
Existential Risks.

SingInst.org/Media
Videos, audio, and PowerPoints from the Singularity Summits;
and videos about SIAI’s purpose.

blinkx.com/videos/kurzweil
Videos on the internet in which the word “Kurzweil” is
spoken. Great new resource!
[Inside Jacket]:
U.S. $25.95 (continued from front flap)
CANADA $36.99
I out brains along direct neural pathways;
computers, for their part, will have read all
magine a world where the difference
the world’s literature. The distinction
between man and machine blurs, where the
between us and computers will have
difference between humanity and
become sufficiently blurred that when the
technology fades, where the soul and the
machines claim to be conscious, we will
silicon chip unite. This is not science fiction.
believe them.
This is the twenty-first century according to

Ray Kurzweil, the “restless genius” (Wall
In The Age Of Spiritual Machines, the
Street Journal) and inventor of the most
“ultimate thinking machine” (Forbes) forges
innovative and compelling technology of our
the ultimate road to the next century.
era. In The Age of Spiritual Machines, the

brains behind the Kurzweil Reading

Machine, the Kurzweil Synthesizer,
advanced speech recognition, and other
technologies devises a framework for
envisioning the next century. In his inspiring
hands, life in the new millennium no longer
seems daunting. Instead, Kurzweil’s twenty-
first century promises to be age in which the
Ray Kurzweil
marriage of human sensitivity and artificial
intelligence fundamentally alters and is the author of The Age of Intelligent
improves the way we live. Machines, which won the Association
American Publishers’ Award for The Most
The Age of Spiritual Machines is no mere list Outstanding Computer Science Book of
of predictions but a prophetic blueprint for 1990. He was awarded the Dickson Prize,
the future. Kurzweil guides us through the Carnegie Mellon’s top science prize, in 1994.
inexorable advances that will results in The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
computers exceeding the memory capacity named him the Inventor of the Year in 1988.
and computational ability of the human He is the recipient of nine honorary
brain. According to Kurzweil, machines will doctorates and honors from two U.S.
achieve all this by 2020, with human presidents. Kurzweil lives in a suburb of
attributes not far behind. We will begin to Boston.
have relationships with automated
JACKET DESIGN BY DAVID J. HIGH
personalities and use them as teachers,
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY BAUER
companions, and lovers. A mere ten years

later, information will be fed straight into

A Member of Penguin Putnam Inc

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(continued on back flap) 0199 Printed in U.S.A.
THE AGE OF
SPIRITUAL
MACHINES
ALSO BY RAY KURZWEIL 

The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life 
The Age of Intelligent Machines
THE AGE OF
SPIRITUAL
MACHINES

WHEN COMPUTERS EXCEED HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

RAY KURZWEIL
VIKING 
Published by the Penguin Group 
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, 
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. 
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England 
Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Ringwood, Victoria, Australia 
Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 10 Alcorn Avenue, 
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Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182–190 Wairau Road, 
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Penguin India, 210 Chiranjiv Tower, 43 Nehru Place, 
New Delhi 11009, India 

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England 

First Published in 1999 by Viking Penguin, 
a member of Penguin Books Inc. 

1     3     5     7     9     10     8     6     4     2 

Copyright © Ray Kurzweil, 1999 
All rights reserved 

Illustrations credits 
Pages 24, 26–27, 104, 156: Concept and text by Ray Kurzweil. Illustration by Rose Russo and Robert Brun. 
Page 72: © 1977 by Sidney Harris 
Pages 167–168: Paintings by Aaron, a computerized robot built and programmed by Harold Cohen. 
Photographed by Becky Cohen. 
Page 188: Roz Chast © 1998. From The Cartoon Bank. All rights reserved. 
Page 194: Danny Shanahan © 1994. From The New Yorker Collection. All rights reserved. 
Page 219: Peter Steiner © 1997. From The New Yorker Collection. All rights reserved. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA 
Kurzweil, Ray. 
The age of spiritual machines / Ray Kurzweil. 
p.     cm. 
Includes bibliographical references and index. 
ISBN 0‐670‐88217‐8 
1. Artificial Intelligence.     2. Computers.     3. Title.  
Q335.K88     1999 
006.3—dc21         98–38804 

This book is printed on acid‐free paper. 

Printed in the United States of America 
Set in Berkeley Oldstyle 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be 
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means 
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written 
permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
A NOTE TO THE READER

As a photon wends its way through an arrangement of glass panes and mirrors, its path remains ambiguous. It 
essentially takes every possible path available to it (apparently these photons have not read Robert Frostʹs poem ʺThe 
Road Not Takenʺ). This ambiguity remains until observation by a conscious observer forces the particle to decide 
which path it had taken. Then the uncertainty is resolved—retroactively—and it is as if the selected path had been 
taken all along. 
Like these quantum particles, you—the reader—have choices to make in your path through this book. You can 
read the chapters as I intended them to be read, in sequential order. Or, after reading the Prologue, you may decide 
that the future canʹt wait, and you wish to immediately jump to the chapters in Part III on the twenty‐first century 
(the table of contents on the next pages offers a description of each chapter). You may then make your way back to the 
earlier chapters that describe the nature and origin of the trends and forces that will manifest themselves in this 
coming century. Or, perhaps, your course will remain ambiguous until the end. But when you come to the Epilogue, 
any remaining ambiguity will be resolved, and it will be as if you had always intended to read the book in the order 
that you selected.
CONTENTS

A NOTE TO THE READER 9

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13

PROLOGUE: AN INEXORABLE EMERGENCE 14
Before the next century is over, human beings will no longer be the most intelligent or capable type of entity
on the planet. Actually, let me take that back. The truth of that last statement depends on how we define
human.

PART ONE: PROBING THE PAST

CHAPTER ONE: THE LAW OF TIME AND CHAOS 19
For the past forty years, in accordance with Moore's Law, the power of transistor-based computing has been
growing exponentially. But by the year 2020, transistor features will be just a few atoms thick, and Moore's
Law will have run its course. What then? To answer this critical question, we need to understand the
exponential nature of time.

CHAPTER TWO: THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE UNIVERSE 40
Can an intelligence create another intelligence more intelligent than itself? Are we more intelligent than the
evolutionary process that created us? In turn, will the intelligence that we are creating come to exceed that of
its creator?

CHAPTER THREE: OF MIND AND MACHINES 47
"I am lonely and bored, please keep me company." If your computer displayed this message on its screen,
would that convince you that it is conscious and has feelings? Before you say no too quickly, we need to
consider how such a plaintive message originated.

CHAPTER FOUR: A NEW FORM OF INTELLIGENCE ON EARTH 56
Intelligence rapidly creates satisfying, sometimes surprising plans that meet an array of constraints. Clearly,
no simple formula can emulate this most powerful of phenomena. Actually, that's wrong. All that is needed to