"The Singularity Is Nearer" by Ray Kurzweil

I'm not a Ray's fan—at least, I wasn't before this book. I read "The Singularity is Near" a while back and didn't give it too much credit. Well, most (if not all) of the predictions from "The Singularity is Near" happened.

Now I think of Ray's predictions more like I think about Moore's Law—not in terms of what it is, but in terms of what consequences are there to it being true. See, "transistor number doubling" doesn't mean much. Predicting that people will have computers wearable on their wrists with utmost precision back in 1975—that's a different type of a beast.

Same with Ray's books—what he entails really boggles my mind.

"The Singularity is Nearer" can be summed up in one sentence: AI advancements will accelerate progress exponentially. Everything that Ray is talking about takes root in AI. No AI means no exponential progress. However, if AI advancements do come, here's what will change:

1. Work (as in employment)
2. Politics
3. Healthcare
4. Insurance
5. The way we think (AI brain interfaces)
6. Pollution
7. Space travel
8. Bioengineering
9. Genetics
10. Money (seen Orville?)

Ray doubled down on his predicted timeline—it is literally around the corner, in the 30s and 40s of the 2000s. I'm both awed and terrified of what's coming. We live in amazing yet scary times.