Ray Kurzweil: When Man and Machine Merge

I was fascinated to see Rolling Stone issue 1072 include an article about Ray Kurzweil: When Man & Machine Merge

I have yet to get to reading his books, though I have been curious about them for a while.

Reading the Rolling Stone article, two things in particular stood out to me.

One:

He [...] has even developed his own line of nutritional supplements to extend people’s lives until the day when their existence can be endlessly preserved by technology. At 61, Kurzweil pops 150 of his own pills every day, determined to live long enough to see the day when, thanks to machines, he will never age.

(Rolling Stone, February 19, p. 58)

Couple things here: Excellent example of dogfooding and: what determination!

Two:

Kurzweil’s most ambitious plan for life after the Singularity, however, is also his most personal: Using technology, he plans to bring his dead father back to life. [...] “We can find some of his DNA around his grave site – that’s a lot of information right there,” he says. “The AI will send down some nanobots and get some bone or teeth and extract some DNA and put it all together. Then they’ll get some information from my brain and anyone else who still remembers him.”

(Rolling Stone, February 19, 2009, p. 61)

Wow. I am probably missing something here, and I certainly enjoy the notion of reconstructing people and their brains. It seems to me that this would leave the new person’s memory super fragmented though.

It should be obvious that Ray Kurzweil attracts lots of criticism. Now I am even more looking forward to his books. Luckily, The Singularity Is Near is available for the Kindle.