Cover image of "The Singularity Is Nearer," a book about how the human race will merge with artificial intelligence

A quarter-century ago two widely read books by computer scientist Ray Kurzweil helped ignite a debate about humanity’s future. The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) and The Singularity Is Near (2005) envisioned a world then a half-century in the future in which homo sapiens would merge with artificial intelligence. Thus immeasurably smarter, our species would evolve in unpredictable new directions. Others have called this transhumanism. Now, halfway to the 2045 target Kurzweil posited at the turn of the century, he’s back with The Singularity Is Nearer. It’s a wide-ranging survey of the new technologies now beginning to move from the laboratory to the marketplace—artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, robotics, materials science, nanotechnology, and others—that together suggest the possibility the human race might achieve a form of immortality. No science fiction writer has ever created anything more imaginative—and Kurzweil tells us it’s all real.

A visionary route to immortality

Kurzweil has made abundantly clear that he hopes to live forever. He is seventy-seven years old now that this book is in print, but he believes advances in science and technology are accelerating at such a rapid rate that immortality may be feasible. Apart from advances in bioscience, which is steadily increasing our life expectancy, he identifies AI and nanotechnology as the keys. Microscopic robots infused in our blood in immense numbers will restore health to the cells in our body, extending not just our life expectancy (now 78 in the US) but our maximum life span beyond the present limit of 120 years. At the same time, nano-robots will imbue our brains with superintelligence, enabling us to solve any problem. As I said, no science fiction writer has ever created anything more imaginative.

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil (2024) 432 pages ★★★★☆

Artist's conception of the Singularity when humankind will merge with artificial intelligence
An artist’s conception of the route toward the singularity, as machine intelligence gradually subsumes the search for the path toward transhumanism. Image: Smithsonian Magazine

Is any of this possible?

Kurzweil’s theories are controversial, of course. He has critics without number. But we would be foolish to brush him off no matter how fantastic his ideas. In those earlier books, especially The Singularity Is Near, he predicted with startling accuracy much that has transpired in science and technology in the two decades that have since elapsed. Advances in bioscience and nanotechnology unforeseen by others at the time have confirmed his prescience. Now, in contrast to most other AI experts, he predicts that researchers will achieve General Artificial Intelligence by 2029. Sixteen years later, further advances will enable us to merge with AI, lending us superhuman intelligence. This is, of course, what Kurzweil terms the Singularity. It’s the take-off point for transhumanism, because we will no longer be simply human. Believe it. Don’t believe it. We can only wait and see.

A diagram of the path to transhumanism, when humans will merge with artificial intelligence
The historical evolution of intelligence as Ray Kurzweil describes it on the path to transhumanism. Image: Wikipedia

If you’re under the age of fifty, say, there’s an excellent chance you’ll be alive and well when 2045 rolls around. But I’m eighty-three as I write this, and I think it’s exceedingly unlikely I’ll be there with you. I don’t expect to live to 104. But good luck to you!

About the author

Photo of Ray Kurzweil, author of this book about how we will merge with artificial intelligence
Ray Kurzweil. Image: Alana Patterson – Wired

Ray Kurzweil is the nation’s most outspoken champion of the potential for artificial intelligence to enhance human life. As Wikipedia notes, he “is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.” Technology in all those fields figure prominently in many of his eight books. He is best known for his prediction that increasing advances in artificial intelligence and allied fields will enable computers to surpass human intelligence by 2045.

Kurzweil was born in New York City in 1948 and earned a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been an entrepreneur since his second year at MIT and has distinguished himself as an inventor in diverse scientific fields. He has worked full-time at Google since 2012 “to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing.” Since 1975, he has been married to a psychotherapist with an appointment at Harvard Medical School. They have two adult children, a son and a daughter.

For a skeptical review of this book by the novelist and essayist Nathaniel Rich, see “A.I. Will Fix the World. The Catch? Robots in Your Veins.” (New York Times, June 26, 2024).

For another optimistic view of what’s in store for the human race, see Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler (Does technology promise humanity a bright future?).

To explore another expert’s approach to the questions Kurzweil raises, see More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement by Ramez Naam (How to make humans smarter, stronger, and healthier).

For a contrary view, see 2062: The World That AI Made by Toby Walsh (An AI expert worries about the robots of the future).

And for a middling view, see Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence and Where It’s Taking Us Next by Luke Dormehl (Will robots run amok?).

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