RAY KURZWEILThat Singularity GuyINTERVIEW BY ROCCO CASTORO
PHOTOS BY JESPER DAMSGAARD LUND
In the year 2050, if Ray Kurzweil is right, nanoscopic robots will be zooming throughout our capillaries, transforming us into nonbiological humans. We will be able to absorb and retain the entirety of the universe’s knowledge, eat as much as we want without gaining weight, shape-shift into just about any physical form imaginable, live free from disease, and die at the time of our choosing. All of this will be thrust on us by something that Kurzweil calls the Singularity, a theorized point in time in the not-so-distant future when machines become vastly superior to humans in every way, aka the emergence of true artificial intelligence. Computers will be able to improve their own source codes and hardware in ways we puny humans could never conceive. This will result in a paradigm shift that sees mankind coalescing with its own creations: man and machine, merging into one.
These grand-scale premonitions are largely based on Kurzweil’s law of accelerating returns, which states that the development of technology has been increasing exponentially since the beginning of time. That concept isn’t really compelling to anyone but science nerds until you focus on the “knee” of this exponential curve—the point where the perpetual doubling of technological growth skyrockets and negates the linear models of progress that people like economists have relied on for so long. Kurzweil says we’re just about to start rounding this bend and that the rate of progress will be so great it will “appear to rupture the fabric of human history.” In other words, we will trump nature and take control of our own evolution. In your face, God.
Kurzweil’s magnum opus, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, outlines the implications of this transition in a way that is simultaneously believable, terrifying, meticulous, and mind-bendingly absurd. It was published in 2005. That may seem like a short time ago, but an incoming technological explosion of nuclear proportions isn’t so far-fetched when you consider everything that’s changed just between then and now. Twitter, iPhones, the comment on the Facebook wall as the new pickup line? The things we were using four years ago already seem like crap from The Flintstones in comparison. Tech is moving faster all the time, and even if a third of Kurzweil’s predictions about the future are realized, we will soon be living in a world that makes Back to the Future II look like Planet of the Apes.
People like to tag Kurzweil as the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and that’s not a stretch considering he’s responsible for some of the most useful inventions of the past century: An optical-character-recognition machine for the blind that’s capable of reading most types of printed text aloud, the CCD flatbed scanner, speech-recognition software, the first synthesizer that created sounds virtually indistinguishable from those produced by their acoustic counterparts, and a whole bunch of other nifty things we can barely comprehend came from Ray’s brain. You might imagine that this guy works in some futuristic, zero-gravity hidden laboratory with a staff of cyborgs. But his office, just outside Boston in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is modest. It looks like it hasn’t seen a new piece of furniture since the late 80s. When Kurzweil, dressed in a slightly crumpled navy suit jacket and slacks, emerged from the columns of books surrounding his desk, he seemed almost meek and startled even though he had postponed our interview by over half an hour. One immediately notices his lustrous and almost plastic-looking skin—a byproduct of supplementing his diet with phosphatidylcholine, a major component of cell membranes that depletes with age. It’s just one of the 100-plus vitamins, minerals, and other supplements he ingests on a daily basis to combat the ravages of time. The goal is to live long enough to see his prophecy fulfilled. And it seems to be working—the guy is a machine. Toward the end of our conversation, he got up from his seat to take a break. He returned ten minutes later, did this shifty rolling maneuver with his eyes that looked as if he were computing some complex theorem, and then promptly picked up exactly where he left off (like, literally the same word). It wouldn’t be surprising if Kurzweil announced that he has already received artificial neural enhancements and other biological upgrades. In fact, it would make most of us feel better about the discrepancy between his brainpower and ours. Regardless, Kurzweil knows more than a few things that the majority of us don’t, and we’d be really foolish not to listen as closely as possible.
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Oct 3, 2009 wrote:
wheres my hoverboard! | | Anonymous, on Aug 9, 2009 wrote:
I can’t say this isn’t going to happen because I can’t see 20 years from now. But I think we’re going to see another singularity happen first. People are reawakening to the power of the mind and soon it’s going to become more and more clear to everyone the true nature of existence. We’re going to realize the earth is a conscious, living entity and all it’s inhabitants share a collective consciousness and when the entire population of earth has this epiphany we’ll be able to harness all our power as electro-magnetic beings, return to full brain capacity, become gods. By gods I mean we’ll be able to create people, animals, planets, stars, galaxies with just our will. A lot of people already know this but once we all know it, there’s going to be a singularity to blow Kurzweill’s out of the water. | | Anonymous, on May 19, 2009 wrote:
Kurzweil’s view of the world is perverted and simplistic; nano technology is the proverbial pandora box. For whatever good its promoters might promise, there is also extreme potential for evil government labs to use invisible, programmable robots to destroy us all. | | Anonymous, on May 11, 2009 wrote:
Kurzweil looks like an in-shape Rupert Murdoch. | | Anonymous, on May 9, 2009 wrote:
I think this will be about changing ourselves rather than getting what we want.
Ask me now and I’ll tell you I want to live to see this happen. But once we’re part machine, interconnected, backed up, copied, deleted, modified, split, the idea of "living to see" something is going to seem absurdly egotistical.
It’s not about getting the things you desire, you don’t really want a virtual reality orgy, or instant video in your head, it’s how these things make you feel that’s important, and post singularity we’re going to be skipping straight to that feeling.
What I hope we’ll end up doing is maximising the hedonic calculus - getting as much happiness and pleasure as we can produce from the available materials and energy sources. First this might be the surface of the Earth, then it might involve reassembling the contents of the solar system - look up "Matrioshka brain". Then maybe it spreads further - humans will never travel to the stars but whatever comes after us will. That is assuming some other civilization isn’t already doing this, which they probably are.
Oh and we have to not destroy ourselves first. | | Anonymous, on May 9, 2009 wrote:
i think it’s just you | | Anonymous, on May 9, 2009 wrote:
is it just me, or has vice become completelt fucking worthless? | | Anonymous, on May 7, 2009 wrote:
this is like what an old teacher of mine told me a long time ago. that one day the amount of information in the world would double each day. that is mind-boggling. | | Anonymous, on May 7, 2009 wrote:
What does this mean for prison sentences? They would have to be extended, right? Ten years is no longer a large chunk of your life. | |
| Willy, on May 7, 2009 wrote:
I don’t get it. Why would superior machines want to bother to "coalesce" with us apes?
This is like terminator through rose coloured beer glasses. | | Anonymous, on May 3, 2009 wrote:
neurosky is selling a ’use the force’ telepathy device for kids to play with toy without touching them. use the force ray. | | Anonymous, on Apr 30, 2009 wrote:
its quite easy to prove we live in an imaginary world. just do some research. we live in two worlds (apparently) objective and subjective. i hate to break it to most people but all we are are flesh vehicles for our dna to propagate itself. sounds bad but its not. the human race recombines its environment to get more work from less effort. from rubbing pieces of flint to make fire to using machines to talk to one another in realtime. it was only a matter of time before we figured out what ray is speculating. science fiction writers say the same thing. leonardo davinci thought people would fly in metal and wood contraptions and people thought him weird for thinking so. but, if i wanna go to china, i buy a plane ticket. in the future i might be able to teleport. i think time is on ray’s side. | | Anonymous, on Apr 30, 2009 wrote:
if you can imagine it why not make it happen... humans are good at that. | | Anonymous, on Apr 28, 2009 wrote:
"if what he says is correct, it only confirms what some eastern religions already stated: life is only a dream and we are the imaginations of ourselves."
No it wouldn’t. It would blur the line, but it certainly wouldn’t confirm any theory that our lives are all an imagination. Trust me, I can imagine a much better life than the one I’m living... | | Anonymous, on Apr 24, 2009 wrote:
im sure Emotiv Systems Inc. agrees with him | | Anonymous, on Apr 23, 2009 wrote:
should be interesting...
if what he says is correct, it only confirms what some eastern religions already stated: life is only a dream and we are the imaginations of ourselves.
his ideas with timothy leary’s ’eight circuits’ explain alot of whats going on ’out there’. its also funny how all the naysayers dont even realise that 15 short years ago that
a. they never would have heard of this guys ideas because websites customized to their tastes didnt exist
b. they wouldnt be able to publish, for all to see, their comments indicating their lack of understanding and/or fear of a possible future.
even if the singularity happens...life goes on, it will just happen so with virtual porn and no more hair-loss. | |
| ghostfingers, on Apr 22, 2009 wrote:
if i was going to live forever, i’d have to have a better chair. no pleather for my everlasting butt. | | Anonymous, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
A bullshit artist that created a machine to help blind people read? Come on, dude. Get real. | | Anonymous, on Apr 19, 2009 wrote:
This fucking guy’s probably hoping to become the next
"scientist"/"philosopher"/"Prophet&
quot;
who ’predicted some future event based on simple analysis of current evolution’.. Well Mr. Scared-of-dying, I hope your insane (actually more like inane) vision never comes to life. The very fact that he developed something as ridiculously useless as acoustic music-instrument synthesis (a major factor in why you get spammed with bland shit-music from retard-bands & "musicians" all the time) says more than enough about him. He’s probably the kind of person who sees the time wasted on making the escalator-stairs as ’spent well’.. That said, "physical real life bots" already exist. They make up probably 70% of earth’s human population.. | | Anonymous, on Apr 19, 2009 wrote:
"...In fact, “real people”—biological people of biological origin, like myself—...", I don’t think so, Mr. RobotFetishPlasticskinCalculater.. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
This article is written by a tardface, and Ray Kurzweil is a very successful bullshit artist. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
"VICE - You Took A Year To Write This Story, From When I Started Pitching It.
1. Thanks For Finally Doing It
2. No Thanks For Taking The Easy Road And Going With Kurzweil.... You Really Dropped The Ball Here...
PS. FUCK YOU I STILL HATE YOU GUYS."
Asshole, if you didn’t get the story there was a reason. Probably because you’re a fucking crybaby. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
nah. what about people that dont have computers? and why cant we just relax. the future will never come. time is relative to this planet. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
uhm... i thought it was moores law. not kurzweil’s.. wtf, dummies | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
Singularitarianism? | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
The irony behind someone like him is that he might not be around to see any of this happen if it does. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
Considering this Singularity is supposed to come to fruition soon, I don’t think humans are prepared to treat AI the right way. We are so gonna fuck this up and we all know it. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
Im not going to listen to anyone who has a taxidermed dead guy in his waiting room. Not cool at all. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
He reminds me of this guy that was able to extract dinosaur DNA from a mosquito fossilized in tree sap. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
Nothing about Singularity I like. Eventually, nature comes back to bite you in the ass. No matter what. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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