Book Review: The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
I just finished reading The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil. I’ve already posted twice (parallel processing, timing of singularity) about the book, so clearly it is a thought provoking book. There has been some controversy of the risks and benefits, and I especially liked Bill Joy’s back cover comments about the book:
“Ray’s optimistic book well merits both reading and thoughtful response. For those like myself whose views differ from Ray’s on the blanace of promise and peril, The Singurity is Near is a clear call for a continuing dialogue to address the greater concerns arising from these accelerating possibilities”.
For those of you that don’t know, this book explores the idea that exponential growth in computing power will lead to artificial intelligence equal to human intelligence somewhere around 2020 to 2030. And because artificial intelligence is on an exponential growth curve, within a short period of time (ten to twenty years), artificial intelligence will vastly exceed human intelligence.
From this, there are all sorts of related impacts, such as accelerating progress in nanotechnology and genetic manipulation. I think the first half of the book is great fun, but it really starts to drag around the second half as Ray spends huge quantities of pages on extremely esoteric and meaningless exploration of the theoretical limits of computational power in rocks, the solar system and the galaxy and spends countless pages exploring how our civilization will expand our computing power at the speed of light. Sure, it could be interesting to spend ten or twenty pages exploring these way-out concepts, but Ray spends hundreds of pages on these topics towards the end of the book. He also repeats the same concepts dozens or hundreds of times towards the end of the book.
But don’t let that negative criticism keep you away. If you read only the first two chapters, it will be worthwhile, and an exciting, mind-blowing ride.