Ugh.

This book is like a techno-optimist’s response to the Unabomber’s manifesto. My problem is that the future espoused by Kurzweil is only slightly more appealing than the Unabomber’s.

Specifically, I don’t care for his timeline/predictions that humanity will be associating primarily with machines by 2019.

That seems like an inhuman future.

His idea of refinements and how much humanity will accept them also seems overly ambitious.

I would point to video games as an example of the refinements that a computer can “get closer to reality”... Every year, EA Sports’s claim that “It’s in the Game” gets a bit more appropriate.

But I think we’re a long way away from people paying $35.00 to have tickets to see folks play a video game.

If that’s a function of the time it takes humanity to accept computers or inherent limitations in computers, I’m not sure… Either way, his predictions seem off-base.

A must read for anyone who has interest in the future.

05/01/2002
One of the very best predictions of the next 100 years of technological innovation (in my mind anyway).

While boring at times and not particularly insightful, the final pages abou the future are sort of fun. You sort of wish Kurzweil would stop prophesizing and start building.