Ray Kurzweil

Will technology one day overcome the humans? Ray Kurzweil, the current director of engineering at Google, author of 7 books including multiple New York Times and Amazon bestsellers, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, and finally, topic of our niki.

In The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1992), Ray predicts technology’s intelligence will supersede human intelligence. Ray has a dream of achieving singularity – a product of integration of human and machine. He says,

“The singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-singularity, between human and machine nor between physical and virtual reality. If you wonder what will remain unequivocally human in such a world, it’s simply this quality: ours is the species that inherently seeks to extend its physical and mental reach beyond current limitations.” 

He also predicted that search engines will be able to respond to complex questions in 8 years. Future search engines will be able to engage in dialogue, or more simply put, react to your questions as if they are talking to you in person.

I am quite excited for what artificial intelligence holds for us in the future.