{"id":2403,"date":"2011-05-31T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info-libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/?p=2403"},"modified":"2023-07-12T16:19:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T16:19:10","slug":"2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/05\/31\/2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 145 – 2005: The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published: New York, 2005<\/p>\n

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil (MIT class of 1970) defines the Singularity as \u201ca future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.\u201d This prediction is based on the idea that information technology develops exponentially, and that this development occurs at a predictable rate, resulting in accelerating returns. Given such an exponential rate of growth, Kurzweil, in considering our future, argues that<\/p>\n

we won\u2019t experience one hundred years of technological advance in the twenty-first century; we will witness on the order of twenty thousand years of progress \u2026 (when measured by today\u2019s rate of progress), or about one thousand times greater than what was achieved in the twentieth century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kurzweil gives dates for a number of his predictions. For example, he predicts that reverse engineering of the human brain will be achieved by the year 2029. This event will help lead us into the Singularity itself, which Kurzweil predicts will occur in 2045.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As with any technological development, there will be benefits and risks. The Singularity may allow us to improve our medical knowledge to the point where we are able to live indefinitely, using nanobots to repair our bodies as they break down. But at the same time, it could lead to artificial intelligence that is unfriendly to humankind. It\u2019s very difficult to predict how people will apply highly advanced technologies in the future.<\/p>\n

Whether or not you agree with all of Kurzweil’s claims, it\u2019s impossible to refute the steady increase in the acceleration of technological progress over the past hundred years. Nor can anyone deny that the rate of progress is likely to continue increasing. Great advances lay in our future. Let’s hope we’re prepared, mentally and ethically, to deal with them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Find it in the library<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published: New York, 2005 Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil (MIT class of 1970) defines the Singularity as \u201ca future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.\u201d This prediction is based on the idea that information technology develops exponentially, and that this development occurs at a predictable rate, resulting in accelerating returns. Given such an exponential rate of growth, Kurzweil, in considering our future, argues that we won\u2019t experience one hundred years of technological advance in the twenty-first century; we will witness on the order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-years"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4338,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions\/4338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}