The noted inventor and futurist's successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near
explores how technology will refashion the human race in the decades to come Since it was
first published in 2005 Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near and its vision of the future
have been influential in spawning a worldwide movement with millions of followers hundreds of
books major films (Her Lucy Ex Machina) and thousands of articles. During the succeeding
decade many of Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have been borne out and
their viability has become familiar to the public through such now commonplace concepts as AI
intelligent machines and bioengineering. In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a
fresh perspective to advances in the singularity-assessing the progress of many of his
predictions and examining the novel advancements that in the near future will bring a
revolution in knowledge and an expansion of human potential. Among the topics he discusses are
rebuilding the world atom by atom with devices like nanobots radical life extension beyond
the current age limit of 120 reinventing intelligence by expanding biological capacity with
nonbiological intelligence in the cloud how life is improving with declines in areas such as
poverty and violence and the growth of technologies such as renewable energy and 3-D printing
which can be applied to everything from clothes to building materials to growing human organs.
He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology nanotechnology and artificial
intelligence including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact unemployment
and the safety of autonomous cars and "After Life" technology which will reanimate people who
have passed away through a combination of data and DNA.
