A comprehensive archive of works written by Editor-in-Chief Raymond C. Kurzweil. Also, a directory of selected articles about Kurzweil or the Kurzweil companies.

I'm Confident About Energy, the Environment, Longevity, and Wealth; I'm Optimistic (But Not Necessarily Confident) Of the Avoidance Of Existential Downsides; And I'm Hopeful (But Not Necessarily Optimistic) About a Repeat Of 9-11 (Or Worse) By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil responds to John Brockman's The Edge Annual Question - 2007: WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY? (Added February 4th 2007)

Foreword to The Intelligent Universe By Ray Kurzweil
The explosive nature of exponential growth means it may only take a quarter of a millennium to go from sending messages on horseback to saturating the matter and energy in our solar system with sublimely intelligent processes. The ongoing expansion of our future superintelligence will then require moving out into the rest of the universe, where we may engineer new universes. A new book by James Gardner tells that story. (Added February 2nd 2007)

Gelernter, Kurzweil debate machine consciousness By Rodney Brooks, Ray Kurzweil, and David Gelernter
Are we limited to building super-intelligent robotic "zombies" or will it be possible and desirable for us to build conscious, creative, volitional, perhaps even "spiritual" machines? David Gelernter and Ray Kurzweil debated this key question at MIT on Nov. 30. (Added December 6th 2006)

Why We Can Be Confident of Turing Test Capability Within a Quarter Century By Ray Kurzweil
The advent of strong AI (exceeding human intelligence) is the most important transformation this century will see, and it will happen within 25 years, says Ray Kurzweil, who will present this paper at The Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence Conference: The next 50 years (AI@50) on July 14, 2006. (Added July 13th 2006)

Response to 'The Singularity Is Always Near' By Ray Kurzweil
In "The Singularity Is Always Near," an essay in The Technium, an online "book in progress," author Kevin Kelly critiques arguments on exponential growth made in Ray Kurzweil's book, The Singularity Is Near. Kurzweil responds. (Added May 4th 2006)

Nanotechnology Dangers and Defenses By Ray Kurzweil
To avoid dangers such as unrestrained nanobot replication, we need relinquishment at the right level and to place our highest priority on the continuing advance of defensive technologies, staying ahead of destructive technologies. An overall strategy should include a streamlined regulatory process, a global program of monitoring for unknown or evolving biological pathogens, temporary moratoriums, raising public awareness, international cooperation, software reconnaissance, and fostering values of liberty, tolerance, and respect for knowledge and diversity. (Added March 27th 2006)

Our Bodies, Our Technologies By Ray Kurzweil
In the 2020s, we'll see nanobots, blood-cell-sized devices that can go inside the body and brain to perform therapeutic functions. But what happens when we have billions of nanobots inside the capillaries of our brains, non-invasively, widely distributed, expanding human intelligence, or providing full-immersion virtual reality? (Added March 16th 2006)

Reprogramming your Biochemistry for Immortality By Ray Kurzweil
Scientists are now talking about people staying young and not aging. Ray Kurzweil is taking it a step further: "In addition to radical life extension, we’ll also have radical life expansion. The nanobots will be able to go inside the brain and extend our mental functioning by interacting with our biological neurons." (Added March 8th 2006)

Wolfram and Kurzweil Roundtable Discussion By Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Wolfram
"The most dramatic possibility is the universe started from a simple initial condition that had some simple geometrical symmetry. It might be the case that if we turn our telescope off to the west, and look at the configuration of the universe in the west, it might be identical to the configuration of the universe in the east [...]" (Added February 24th 2006)

Sander Olson Interviews Ray Kurzweil By Sander Olson and Ray Kurzweil
Nonbiological intelligence is multiplying by over 1,000 per decade. Once we can achieve the software of intelligence, which we will achieve through reverse-engineering the human brain, non-biological intelligence will soar past biological intelligence. By the 2040s, nonbiological intelligence will be a billion times more powerful than the 10^26 computations per second that all biological humanity represents. (Added February 10th 2006)

Ray Kurzweil Responds to Richard Eckersley By Ray Kurzweil
"Eckersley bases his romanticized idea of ancient life on communication and the relationships fostered by communication. But much of modern technology is directed at just this basic human need." (Added February 3rd 2006)

Reinventing Humanity By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil sees a radical evolution of the human species in the next 40 years. The merger of man and machine, coupled with the sudden explosion in machine intelligence and rapid innovation in gene research and nanotechnology, will result in a world where there is no distinction between the biological and the mechanical, or between physical and virtual reality. (Added February 3rd 2006)

Ubiquity Interviews Ray Kurzweil By Ray Kurzweil
"If it were up to the Luddites, human life expectancy would still be 37, and we'd still be dying from bacterial infections," says Ray Kurzweil in this wide-ranging interview. The anti-technology movement "is fundamentally misguided, because it fails to appreciate the profound benefits technology has brought." (Added January 18th 2006)

Ray Kurzweil's Dangerous Idea By Ray Kurzweil
"What is your dangerous idea?" Over one hundred big thinkers answered this question, as part of The Edge's Annual Question for 2006. Ray Kurzweil's dangerous idea? We can achieve immortality in our lifetime. (Added January 17th 2006)

Online Chat with Ray Kurzweil and European Schoolnet By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil introduced 300 secondary-school students across Europe to robotics and AI in an interactive Internet chat set up by Xplora, the European gateway to science education. (Added November 9th 2005)

Lunch with Mikhail Gorbachev By Ray Kurzweil
With only 53,000 engineering graduates a year compared to Russia's 200,000, the U.S. needs to "communicate the importance of science in today’s world," Mikhail Gorbachev told Ray Kurzweil in a luncheon discussion that ranged from blogs to nuclear disarmament and longevity. (Added April 19th 2005)

The Future of Intelligent Technology and Its Impact on Disabilities By Ray Kurzweil
Future technologies for sensory impairments will include automatic subtitles on the fly for the hearing-impaired, pocket-sized reading machines, automatic language translators, and intelligent devices sent through the bloodstream. These devices will also augment the senses for the general population. (Added March 16th 2004)

Acceptance Remarks For American Foundation for the Blind Migel Award By Ray Kurzweil
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) presented its Migel 2004 Lay/Volunteer Award on March 6, 2004 to Ray Kurzweil for his extensive work in the field of blindness, optical character recognition, and the Reading Machine for the blind. (Added March 7th 2004)

Statement for Extropy Institute Vital Progress Summit By Ray Kurzweil
Responding to the Presidential Bioethics Council report, "Beyond Therapy," Ray Kurzweil has written a keynote statement for the Extropy Institute's Vital Progress Summit, an Internet virtual discussion and debate. (Added February 18th 2004)

Kurzweil’s Law (aka “the law of accelerating returns”) By Ray Kurzweil
In an evolutionary process, positive feedback increases order exponentially. A correlate is that the "returns" of an evolutionary process (such as the speed, cost-effectiveness, or overall "power" of a process) increase exponentially over time -- both for biology and technology. Ray Kurzweil submitted on essay based on that premise to Edge.org in response to John Brockman's question: "What's your law?" (Added January 12th 2004)

A Dialogue on Reincarnation By Ray Kurzweil
If you were offered physical immortality as a "Wallerstein brain" (a human brain maintained in a jar interfacing to a virtual reality through its sensory and motor neurons), would you accept it? The question came up in an email dialogue about reincarnation between Ray Kurzweil and Steve Rabinowitz, a practicing attorney in New York City (which he says may explain his need to believe in reincarnation). (Added January 6th 2004)

The Drexler-Smalley Debate on Molecular Assembly By Ray Kurzweil
Nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler and Rice University Professor and Nobelist Richard Smalley have engaged in a crucial debate on the feasibility of molecular assembly. Smalley's position, which denies both the promise and the peril of molecular assembly, will ultimately backfire and will fail to guide nanotechnology research in the needed constructive direction, says Ray Kurzweil. By the 2020s, molecular assembly will provide tools to effectively combat poverty, clean up our environment, overcome disease, extend human longevity, and many other worthwhile pursuits, he predicts. (Added December 1st 2003)

The technology of universal intelligence By Ray Kurzweil
Levels of intelligence far greater than our own are going to evolve within this century. We will ultimately saturate all of the matter and energy in our area of the universe with our intelligence. (Added October 16th 2003)

The Future of Music in the Age of Spiritual Machines By Ray Kurzweil
We are moving towards an era of software-based musical instruments, intelligent accompanists, and music as information, says Ray Kurzweil in highlights from his keynote speech at the 2003 Audio Engineering Society convention. (Added October 14th 2003)

Essay for E-School News By Ray Kurzweil
Speaking at the 18th Annual Conference on "Technology and Persons with Disabilities" at California State University Northridge in March 2003, Ray Kurzweil described how key developments in science and technology will affect society, alter education and other fields, and benefit everyone, especially those with disabilities. This article is based on that address. (Added October 2nd 2003)

Exponential Growth an Illusion?: Response to Ilkka Tuomi By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil responds to Ilkka Tuomi's essays, "The Lives and Death of Moore's Law" and "Kurzweil, Moore, and Accelerating Change," in which Tuomi challenges Kurzweil's "law of accelerating returns" and the exponential growth of semiconductor technology. (Added September 13th 2003)

Remarks about Tod Machover In Presenting the 2003 Ray Kurzweil Award of Technology in Music By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil presented the 2003 Ray Kurzweil Award of Technology in Music to Tod Machover at the Fourth Annual Telluride Tech Festival (August 8-10, 2003). The award was in recognition of Machover's pioneering research at the MIT Media Lab in music technology, such as "hyperinstruments," as well as his achievements as composer and performer. (Added August 11th 2003)

The Power of an Idea By Ray Kurzweil
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) founder Dr. Kenneth Jernigan "realized that the pace of technology was accelerating, and these hastening advances would either be liberating for blind people, or would represent another barrier," said Ray Kurzweil in a speech at NFB's 2003 annual convention. Jernigan's solution, a research and training institute, was an example of the power of an idea. (Added July 6th 2003)

Foreword to Electronic Reporting in the Digital Medical Enterprise By Ray Kurzweil
Doctors in the year 2012 will have access to full-immersion virtual-reality training and surgical systems, microchip-based protein and gene analysis systems, knowledge-based systems providing automated guidance and access to the most recent medical research, and always-present visual displays of patient data for instant interaction via voice. (Added June 6th 2003)

The Matrix Loses Its Way: Reflections on 'Matrix' and 'Matrix Reloaded' By Ray Kurzweil
The Matrix Reloaded is crippled by senseless fighting and chase scenes, weak plot and character development, tepid acting, and sophomoric dialogues. It shares the dystopian, Luddite perspective of the original movie, but loses the elegance, style, originality, and evocative philosophical musings of the original. (Added May 19th 2003)

Understanding the Accelerating Rate of Change By Ray Kurzweil and Chris Meyer
We're entering an age of acceleration. The models underlying society at every level, which are largely based on a linear model of change, are going to have to be redefined. Because of the explosive power of exponential growth, the 21st century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today's rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace. (Added May 2nd 2003)

Congressional hearing addresses public concerns about nanotech By Amara D. Angelica
Concerns about the possible negative consequences of nanotech may stifle vital nanotech research that could otherwise result in medical and other important breakthroughs. Expert witnesses at a congressional hearing recommended wider public debate, greater resources to develop defensive technology, and funding of societal, ethical, and environmental impact studies along with technology forecasting and basic science studies. (Added April 13th 2003)

Testimony of Ray Kurzweil on the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology By Ray Kurzweil
Despite calls to relinquish research in nanotechnology, we will have no choice but to confront the challenge of guiding nanotechnology in a constructive direction. Advances in nanotechnology and related advanced technologies are inevitable. Any broad attempt to relinquish nanotechnology will only push it underground, which would interfere with the benefits while actually making the dangers worse. (Added April 8th 2003)

The Future of Life By Ray Kurzweil
A coming era of personalized genetic medicine, breakthroughs that radically extend the human lifespan, nanomedicine, and the merger of our biological species with our own technology were among the future visions presented at TIME's "The Future of Life" conference. (Added March 31st 2003)

THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX? By Ray Kurzweil
Most viewers of The Matrix consider the more fanciful elements--intelligent computers, downloading information into the human brain, virtual reality indistinguishable from real life--to be fun as science fiction, but quite remote from real life. Most viewers would be wrong. As renowned computer scientist and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil explains, these elements are very feasible and are quite likely to be a reality within our lifetimes. (Added March 3rd 2003)

Human Body Version 2.0 By Ray Kurzweil
In the coming decades, a radical upgrading of our body's physical and mental systems, already underway, will use nanobots to augment and ultimately replace our organs. We already know how to prevent most degenerative disease through nutrition and supplementation; this will be a bridge to the emerging biotechnology revolution, which in turn will be a bridge to the nanotechnology revolution. By 2030, reverse-engineering of the human brain will have been completed and nonbiological intelligence will merge with our biological brains. (Added February 17th 2003)

Top KurzweilAI.net News of 2002 By Ray Kurzweil and Amara D. Angelica
In its second year of operation, 2002, KurzweilAI.net continued to chronicle the most notable news stories on accelerating intelligence. We offer here our overview of the dramatic progress that the past year has brought. Following that, we selected just over half of the 823 news stories posted in 2002 to document key breakthroughs in the continued exponential growth of increasingly diverse information-based technologies; deepening understanding of the information basis of biological processes; the early contributions of nanotechnology, and a multiplicity of related topics. (Added February 6th 2003)

Kurzweil responds to Edge challenge, advises Bush By Ray Kurzweil
In a hypothetical letter to President Bush, Ray Kurzweil advised him to accelerate FDA review of defensive solutions for bioengineered pathogens, fund a crash program for developing promising new methodologies for human somatic cell engineering, and perfect hydrogen fuel cells, which could have major implications for the economy, the environment, and the geopolitics of oil. (Added January 26th 2003)

Human Cloning is the Least Interesting Application of Cloning Technology By Ray Kurzweil
Cloning is an extremely important technology--not for cloning humans but for life extension: therapeutic cloning of one's own organs, creating new tissues to replace defective tissues or organs, or replacing one's organs and tissues with their "young" telomere-extended replacements without surgery. Cloning even offers a possible solution for world hunger: creating meat without animals. (Added January 4th 2003)

The Intelligent Universe By Ray Kurzweil
Within 25 years, we'll reverse-engineer the brain and go on to develop superintelligence. Extrapolating the exponential growth of computational capacity (a factor of at least 1000 per decade), we'll expand inward to the fine forces, such as strings and quarks, and outward. Assuming we could overcome the speed of light limitation, within 300 years we would saturate the whole universe with our intelligence. (Added December 12th 2002)

Dialogue between Ray Kurzweil, Eric Drexler, and Robert Bradbury By K. Eric Drexler, Ray Kurzweil, and Robert Bradbury
What would it take to achieve successful cryonics reanimation of a fully functioning human brain, with memories intact? A conversation at the recent Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension between Ray Kurzweil and Eric Drexler sparked an email discussion of this question. They agreed that despite the challenges, the brain's functions and memories can be represented surprisingly compactly, suggesting that successful reanimation of the brain may be achievable. (Added December 4th 2002)

The Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension By Ray Kurzweil
On November 15-17, 2002, leaders in life extension and cryonics came together to explore how the emerging technologies of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and cryonics will enable humans to halt and ultimately reverse aging and disease and live indefinitely. (Added November 21st 2002)

Deep Fritz Draws: Are Humans Getting Smarter, or Are Computers Getting Stupider? By Ray Kurzweil
The Deep Fritz computer chess software only achieved a draw in its recent chess tournament with Vladimir Kramnik because it has available only about 1.3% as much brute force computation as the earlier Deep Blue's specialized hardware. Despite that, it plays chess at about the same level because of its superior pattern recognition-based pruning algorithm. In six years, a program like Deep Fritz will again achieve Deep Blue's ability to analyze 200 million board positions per second. Deep Fritz-like chess programs running on ordinary personal computers will routinely defeat all humans later in this decade. (Added October 21st 2002)

National Inventor Hall of Fame Acceptance Remarks By Ray Kurzweil
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) inducted Ray Kurzweil on Sept. 21, 2002. Sponsored by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Hewlett-Packard, the ceremony recognized Kurzweil for the Kurzweil Reading Machine and a lifetime of invention, including the first "omni-font" optical character recognition (OCR), the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first full text-to-speech synthesizer, the first realistic-sounding electronic music synthesizer, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. (Added September 22nd 2002)

National Gallery for America’s Young Inventors: Brochure Statement By Ray Kurzweil
On Sept. 21, 2002, Ray Kurzweil presented an award to Ezra Rapoport at the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors ceremony. Rapoport, an 18-year-old inventor and part-time employee of KurzweilAI.net, was recognized for his invention of a speech-compression method that transmits speech clearly and reliably over phone lines using only 3 Kbps, allowing for 20 conversations over a single phone line. (Added September 22nd 2002)

A myopic perspective on AI By Ray Kurzweil
In a recent Red Herring magazine article, writer Geoffrey James said "pundits can't stop hyping the business opportunities of artificial intelligence" and described AI as a "technological backwater." Ray Kurzweil challenges this view, citing "hundreds of examples of narrow AI deeply integrated into our information-based economy" and "many applications beginning to combine multiple methodologies," a step towards the eventual achievement of "strong AI" (human-level intelligence in a machine). (Added September 2nd 2002)

Reflections on S1m0ne By Ray Kurzweil
The movie Simone presents an "unrealistic notion of how technology is introduced to the world," says Ray Kurzweil in this review. He examines this portrayal from the perspective of his own transformation at the TED conference into Ramona, the state of the art for real-time virtual personality transformation two years ago. (Added August 25th 2002)

Live Moderated Chat: Are We Spiritual Machines? By Ray Kurzweil, Jay W. Richards, and William A. Dembski
On July 19, 2001, the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design hosted an online chat with Ray Kurzweil, Jay Richards, and William Dembski, three of the co-authors of the new book, Are We Spiritual Machines? Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. The discussion focused on the nature of consciousness, free will vs. determinism, complexity, and implications of the eroding boundary between humans and intelligent machines. (Added July 24th 2002)

Kenneth Jernigan’s Prophetic Vision: By Ray Kurzweil
The accelerating growth of technology has brought opportunities to the blind but has also created barriers, says Ray Kurzweil. "At the end of this first decade of this new century, everyone will be on-line all the time with very high speed, wireless communication woven into their clothing. Within a couple of decades, we will have established new high bandwidth pathways of communication directly to and from our brains. Will this represent a great enabler for blind students and workers or a new set of obstructions?" Former National Federation of the Blind president Dr. Kenneth Jernigan's vision of "the world’s first world-class research and training institute for the blind" should help. (Added July 9th 2002)

Are We Spiritual Machines? By Jay W. Richards, Michael Denton, Thomas Ray, William A. Dembski, John Searle, George Gilder, and Ray Kurzweil
Computers are becoming more powerful at an accelerating rate, but will they ever become conscious? In Are We Spiritual Machines?, critics of strong artificial intelligence (the view that computers will go fully conscious) square off with one of A.I.'s leading proponents, Ray Kurzweil. (Added June 18th 2002)

Singularity Chat with Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil By Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil
Vernor Vinge (screen name "vv") and Ray Kurzweil (screen name "RayKurzweil") recently discussed The Singularity -- their idea that superhuman machine intelligence will soon exceed human intelligence -- in an online chat room co-produced by Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction magazine on SCIFI.COM. Vinge, a noted science fiction writer, is the author of the seminal paper, "The Technological Singularity." Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near book is due out in early 2003 and is previewed in "The Law of Accelerating Returns." (Note: typos corrected and comments aggregated for readability.) (Added June 13th 2002)

Kurzweil Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame By National Inventors Hall of Fame
Ray Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on May 16, 2002. He was recognized for the invention of the Kurzweil Reading Machine and other significant inventions. (Added May 17th 2002)

Technology in the 21st Century: an Imminent Intimate Merger By Ray Kurzweil
At the Foresight Institute "Exploring the Edges" Senior Associate Gathering, April 27, 2002, Ray Kurzweil presented the case of the emergence of biological and machine intelligence, answering the three major challenges: limited resources, inadequate software, and ethical concerns. Here are the presentation slides and audio. (Added May 14th 2002)

Reflections on Stephen Wolfram's 'A New Kind of Science' By Ray Kurzweil
In his remarkable new book, Stephen Wolfram asserts that cellular automata operations underlie much of the real world. He even asserts that the entire Universe itself is a big cellular-automaton computer. But Ray Kurzweil challenges the ability of these ideas to fully explain the complexities of life, intelligence, and physical phenomena. (Added May 13th 2002)

Arguments for a Green AND Gray Future By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil and Gregory Stock, Director, UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, debated "BioFuture vs. MachineFuture" at the Foresight Senior Associate Gathering, April 27, 2002. This is Ray Kurzweil's presentation. (Added May 1st 2002)

How Can We Possibly Tell If It's Conscious? By Ray Kurzweil
At the Tucson 2002: Toward a Science of Consciousness conference, Ray Kurzweil addressed the question of how to tell if something is conscious. He proposed two thought experiments. (Added April 18th 2002)

Response to Mitchell Kapor's "Why I Think I Will Win" By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil responds to Mitch Kapor's arguments against the possibility that an AI that will pass a Turing Test in 2029 in this final counterpoint on the bet: an AI will pass a Turing Test by 2029. (Added April 9th 2002)

A Wager on the Turing Test: Why I Think I Will Win By Ray Kurzweil
Will Ray Kurzweil's predictions come true? He's putting his money where his mouth is. Here's why he thinks he will win a bet on the future of artificial intelligence. The wager: an AI that passes the Turing Test by 2029. (Added April 9th 2002)

A Wager on the Turing Test: The Rules By Mitch Kapor and Ray Kurzweil
An explanation of rules behind the Turing Test, used to determine the winner of a long bet between Ray Kurzweil and Mitch Kapor over whether artificial intelligence will be achieved by 2029. (Added April 9th 2002)

After the Singularity: A Talk with Ray Kurzweil By Ray Kurzweil
John Brockman, editor of Edge.org, recently interviewed Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity and its ramifications. According to Ray, "We are entering a new era. I call it 'the Singularity.' It's a merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence that is going to create something bigger than itself. It's the cutting edge of evolution on our planet. One can make a strong case that it's actually the cutting edge of the evolution of intelligence in general, because there's no indication that it's occurred anywhere else. To me that is what human civilization is all about. It is part of our destiny and part of the destiny of evolution to continue to progress ever faster, and to grow the power of intelligence exponentially. To contemplate stopping that--to think human beings are fine the way they are--is a misplaced fond remembrance of what human beings used to be. What human beings are is a species that has undergone a cultural and technological evolution, and it's the nature of evolution that it accelerates, and that its powers grow exponentially, and that's what we're talking about. The next stage of this will be to amplify our own intellectual powers with the results of our technology." (Added March 27th 2002)

Accelerating Intelligence: Where Will Technology Lead Us? By Ray Kurzweil
Kurzweil gave a Special Address at BusinessWeek's The Digital Economy New Priorities: Building A Collaborative Enterprise In Uncertain Times conference on December 6, 2001 in San Francisco. He introduced business CEOs to the Singularity -- the moment when distinctions between human and machine intelligence disappear. (Added March 26th 2002)

We Are Becoming Cyborgs By Ray Kurzweil
The union of human and machine is well on its way. Almost every part of the body can already be enhanced or replaced, even some of our brain functions. Subminiature drug delivery systems can now precisely target tumors or individual cells. Within two to three decades, our brains will have been "reverse-engineered": nanobots will give us full-immersion virtual reality and direct brain connection with the Internet. Soon after, we will vastly expand our intellect as we merge our biological brains with non-biological intelligence. (Added March 15th 2002)

The 10% Solution For A Healthy Life: Acknowledgments, Introduction, A Brief Medical History and Foreword By Ray Kurzweil and Steven R. Flier
(Added March 6th 2002)

The 10% Solution For A Healthy Life, Chapter 2: What Does This Mean? By Ray Kurzweil
(Added March 6th 2002)

The 10% Solution For A Healthy Life, Chapter 3: The Benefits By Ray Kurzweil
(Added March 6th 2002)

The 10% Solution For A Healthy Life, Chapter 4: A Parable By Ray Kurzweil
(Added March 6th 2002)

Interview with Michael Behar for a story in WIRED on Tactical Mobile Robots By Michael Behar
Ray Kurzweil discusses how robots will think on their feet with the help of virtual reality and other technological advances. (Added February 26th 2002)

Max More and Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity By Max More and Ray Kurzweil
As technology accelerates over the next few decades and machines achieve superintelligence, we will encounter a dramatic phase transition: the "Singularity." Will it be a "wall" (a barrier as conceptually impenetrable as the event horizon of a black hole in space), an "AI-Singularity" ruled by super-intelligent AIs, or a gentler "surge" into a posthuman era of agelessness and super-intelligence? Will this meme be hijacked by religious "passive singularitarians" obsessed with a future rapture? Ray Kurzweil and Extropy Institute president Max More debate. (Added February 26th 2002)

How Can We Possibly Tell If It's Conscious? By Ray Kurzweil
Abstract of talk to be delivered at the "Toward a Science of Consciousness" Conference, April 10, 2002. Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. (Added February 7th 2002)

Review of Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us by Rodney Brooks By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil reviews Rodney Brooks' latest book on robotics for Wired Magazine. Brooks challenges Jaron Lanier's claim that AI is "based on an intellectual mistake" and Kurzweil's statements on reverse-engineering the brain and the date of the "Singularity." Kurzweil responds. (Added January 28th 2002)

What Have We Learned a Year After NASDAQ Hit 5,000? By Ray Kurzweil
The current recession reflects failure to develop realistic models of the pace at which new information-based technologies emerge and the overall acceleration of the flow of information. But in the longer-range view, recessions and recoveries reflect a relatively minor variability compared to the far more important trend of the underlying exponential growth of the economy. (Added January 21st 2002)

Top KurzweilAI.net News of 2001 By Ray Kurzweil and Amara D. Angelica
In its first year of operation, KurzweilAI.net has chronicled the notable news stories on accelerating intelligence. We've selected here the most important of those stories to document the key breakthroughs for 2001 in continued exponential growth of computation, communication, and other information-based technologies; comparable acceleration in efforts to reverse-engineer the human brain and other sources of the templates of intelligence; similar growth in our understanding of the information basis of biological processes; and the contributions of nanotechnology. (Added January 21st 2002)

My Question for Edge: Who am I? What am I? By Ray Kurzweil
Since we constantly changing, are we just patterns? What if someone copies that pattern? Am I the original and/or the copy? Ray Kurzweil responds to Edge publisher/editor John Brockman's request to futurists to pose "hard-edge" questions that "render visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefine who and what we are." (Added January 14th 2002)

Ray Kurzweil Q&A; with Darwin Magazine By Ray Kurzweil
Machine consciousness is the subject of this dialog with Darwin Magazine. (Added December 3rd 2001)

Remarks on Accepting the Tree of Life Award from the Jewish National Fund on November 29, 2001 By Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil was honored with the Tree of Life Award on November 29, 2001. Here are his remarks on accepting this prestigious award. (Added December 3rd 2001)

Arthur C. Clarke Offers His Vision of the Future By Sir Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Kurzweil
The science fiction visionary behind HAL offers his predictions of salient events to come in this century. (Added December 3rd 2001)

New Defense Technologies on Talk of the Nation, Featuring Ray Kurzweil By National Public Radio
What new technologies will be developed to defeat terrorism? Ray Kurzweil, David Pogue and Nate Lewis discuss a new iniative designed to spur entrepreneurs into developing creative solutions. (Added November 26th 2001)

Are We Becoming an Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the Twenty First Century By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil addresses questions presented at Are We Becoming an Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the 21st Century, a conference on technology and ethics sponsored by Washington National Cathedral. Other panelists are Anne Foerst, Bill Joy and Bill Mckibben. (Added November 20th 2001)

Remarks on Accepting the American Composers Orchestra Award By Ray Kurzweil
The Second Annual American Composers Orchestra Award for the Advancement of New Music in America was presented on November 13 to Ray Kurzweil by American Composers Orchestra. Kurzweil reflects on creativity and the jump from the blackboard to changing peoples' lives. (Added November 14th 2001)

Can We Talk? By Gordon W. Henry
Kurzweil's computer will listen. This TIME article appeared in 1986 after the release of Kurzweil's VoiceWriter. (Added November 9th 2001)

Will My PC Be Smarter Than I Am? By Ray Kurzweil
Once we learn how to map the brain and make computers fast enough to simulate it, all bets are off. (Added November 9th 2001)

Goodbye biology, hello software By Ivan Briscoe
Do we really need our flesh and blood? Ray Kurzweil, guru of Artificial Intelligence, believes that the conscious machine is only decades away--so get ready to download. (Added November 9th 2001)

Are We Becoming An Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the 21st Century By Washington National Cathedral
Are We Becoming an Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the 21st Century will bring together a panel of leading experts on November 19 at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. to explore the ethics of technological advances, especially as they relate to genetic engineering, nanotechnology and robotics. The panelists are Bill Joy, author, and co-founder and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, Ray Kurzweil, author, inventor and president of Kurzweil Technologies, Anne Foerst, visiting professor for Theology and Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University and Bill McKibben, author, environmentalist and visiting scholar at Middlebury College. (Added November 8th 2001)

Q&A; with Kurzweil's Ray Kurzweil By Paul C. Judge
Ray Kurzweil got his start by inventing a machine-reader for blind people, which he sold to Xerox in 1980. Kurzweil's second company, Kurzweil Applied Intelligent Systems, developed one of the first voice-recognition engines, capable of understanding discrete words and turning them into text or commands. Kurzweil AI was rocked by an accounting fraud uncovered in 1994, resulting in prison sentences for the company's CEO and vice-president of sales. No charges were brought against Kurzweil, who denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. The company was sold in 1996 to Lernout & Hauspie. Today, Kurzweil is again focusing on computer systems to aid the disabled. His current venture, Kurzweil Educational Systems, is developing a reading machine for people with dyslexia and other reading and learning disabilities--a group that numbers as many as 50 million Americans. BUSINESS WEEK correspondent Paul C. Judge interviewed Kurzweil in KESI's Waltham (Mass.) offices. (Added November 7th 2001)

How Ray Kurzweil Keeps Changing the World By John Williams
The inventor whose amazing devices have transformed the lives of the disabled pursues a new dream: Making paraplegics walk again. (Added November 7th 2001)

Kurzweil morphs into rockin' Ramona By Janet Kornblum
Kurzweil readily acknowledges her limitations. But for him, Ramona is a glimpse into a future where meeting virtually will be as common as meeting face-to-face. (Added November 7th 2001)

How to Enjoy the Brave New World of Genius Computers By Bottom Line/Personal
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Raymond Kurzweil, founder and chairman of Kurzweil Technologies Inc., pioneer in the application of artificial intelligence. (Added November 7th 2001)

Diane Rehm interview with Ray Kurzweil By Diane Rehm
Diane Rehm of National Public Radio's affiliate 88.5 WAMU talks with Ray Kurzweil about his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines. (Added November 7th 2001)

Sleep and Dreams By The Connection
Deirdre Barrett, psychologist, and author of "The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists and Athletes Use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving - And How You Can Too" and Ray Kurzweil, an inventor who has found inspiration for his practical ideas in his dreams, discuss sleep and dreaming on NPR's The Connection. (Added November 6th 2001)

Ray Kurzweil: Computers to Live Within the Human Body By Leslie Katz
Kurzweil's latest book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence," posits that computers will exceed the full range of human intelligence within a few decades. These "spiritual machines," according to Kurzweil, will possess their own brand of feelings. (Added November 6th 2001)

The 1999 National Medal of Technology By Scientific American
The latest winners of the nation's highest honors for innovationare celebrated for outstanding contributions to the growth and commercializationof the Internet, biotechnology, pattern recognition and more (Added November 6th 2001)

Kurzweil: Rooting for the Machine By Declan McCullagh
"By the end of this century, I don't think there will be a clear distinction between human and machine," Kurzweil told the Foresight Institute's Eighth Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology. (Added November 6th 2001)

Are You Ready for a Virtual Reality? By Joyce A. Schwartz
"If you work on technologies, you need to anticipate where technologies are going," Kurzweil said at the 2000 ACM Siggraph in New Orleans. (Added November 2nd 2001)

Want to live to 200? Being a cyborg has advantages By Garry Barker
Ray Kurzweil predicts that human identity will be called into question by the massive computers of the future. (Added November 2nd 2001)

AARON: Art From the Machine By Mark K. Anderson
Artificial Intelligence pioneer Ray Kurzweil has sponsored the premiere of the first excursion into computational art in history. (Added November 2nd 2001)

Kiss me, you human By Stephen Humphries
Is Spielberg's premise as far-fetched as "E.T." flying a bicycle past the moon? Not according to Ray Kurzweil, who is something of a superstar in the AI community. (Added November 2nd 2001)

The End User: Aaron vs. Picasso By Lee Dembart
Software Prompts Question: Can a Computer Truly Create? International Herald Tribune article on AARON. (Added November 2nd 2001)

A.I.: Kurzweil Says Thumbs Up By Wired News Radio
Wired gets Ray Kurzweil's take on the Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg film "A.I." prior to its wide release. (Added November 2nd 2001)

Ray Kurzweil, Material Girl By Wired News Radio
In this Wired interview, Kurzweil discusses how he used image- and voice-rendering software to transform himself into a 25-year-old singer named Ramona. (Added November 2nd 2001)

The Age of Intelligent Machines: The Film By Ray Kurzweil
This award-winning 1987 documentary is the basis of the book The Age of Intelligent Machines, and features several AI experts--some are big thinkers on this site! (Added October 30th 2001)

Remarks at The Celebration, A Gala to Celebrate the Groundbreaking of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil's remarks given at the groundbreaking of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind (Added October 22nd 2001)

Intelligence, Computer and Human: A Discussion with Howard Gardner By Howard Gardner and Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil and Howard Gardner discuss education, technology, pattern recognition and collecting electronic parts on Canal Street. (Added October 2nd 2001)

Jim Lehrer News Hour: Interview with Ray Kurzweil By Jim Lehrer News Hour
David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News and World Report, talks with inventor Ray Kurzweil about his prediction that computers will attain the memory capacity and computing speed of the human brain by around 2020. (Added September 27th 2001)

A Dialog with the New York Times on the Technological Implications of the September 11 Disaster By Ray Kurzweil
In preparation for the New York Times article, "In the Next Chapter, Is Technology an Ally?," Ray Kurzweil engaged in a conversation with computer scientist Peter Neumann, science fiction author Bruce Sterling, law professor Lawrence Lessig, retired engineer Severo Ornstein, and cryptographer Whitfield Diffie, addressing questions of how technology and innovation will be shaped by the tragic events of September 11, 2001. (Added September 27th 2001)

The Age of Intelligent Machines, Prologue: The Second Industrial Revolution By Ray Kurzweil
From Ray Kurzweil's revolutionary book The Age of Intelligent Machines, published in 1990. (Added September 24th 2001)

Accelerated Living By Ray Kurzweil
In this article written for PC Magazine, Ray Kurzweil explores how advancing technologies will impact our personal lives. (Added September 24th 2001)

Response to Stephen Hawking By Ray Kurzweil
Stephen Hawking recently told the German magazine Focus that computers were evolving so rapidly that they would eventually outstrip the intelligence of humans. Professor Hawking went on to express the concern that eventually, computers with artificial intelligence could come to dominate the world. Ray Kurzweil replies. (Added September 5th 2001)

Tribute to Michael Dertouzos (1936 -- 2001) By Ray Kurzweil
In memory of Michael Dertouzos, 1936 -- 2001. (Added August 30th 2001)

The Human Machine Merger: Why We Will Spend Most of Our Time in Virtual Reality in the Twenty-first Century By Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil's keynote address delivered at the 2000 ACM SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans. (Added August 29th 2001)

Pamela Wallin interviews Ray Kurzweil, with Mike Turner and Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace By Pamela Wallin
Canadian talk show host Pamela Wallin takes a look into the future with Ray Kurzweil, with a special appearance by Mike Turner and Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, whose album "Spiritual Machines" was inspired by and features narrative from Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines. (Added August 27th 2001)

Turing's Prophecy By Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil's history of the computer from the year 2040 is presented in this joint keynote address with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres at the Annual International Conference on Personal Computing, Tel Aviv, Israel, June 25, 1995. (Added August 8th 2001)

Israel in the Age of Knowledge By Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil's keynote address delivered at "Connections," American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, April 28, 1996. (Added August 8th 2001)

When Will HAL Understand What We Are Saying? Computer Speech Recognition and Understanding By Ray Kurzweil
This chapter from HAL's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality addresses the accomplishments--and challenges--of automatic speech recognition. What kind of paradigm shift in computing will give HAL the ability to understand human context, and therefore truly speak? (Added August 6th 2001)

Machine Intelligence: The First 80 Years By Ray Kurzweil
A brief history of machine intelligence written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Age of Knowledge By Ray Kurzweil
An illustration of the second industrial revolution written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal (Added August 6th 2001)

The Economics of Innovation By Ray Kurzweil
An examination of the changing nature of wealth, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

Learning in the Age of Knowledge By Ray Kurzweil
An overview of how education is changing with technology, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Future of Libraries, Part 1: The Technology of the Book By Ray Kurzweil
The future of book technology, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal (Added August 6th 2001)

The Future of Libraries, Part 2: The End of Books By Ray Kurzweil
A look at what may replace books, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Future of Libraries, Part 3: The Virtual Library By Ray Kurzweil
A look at the virtual library, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The End of Handicaps, Part 1 By Ray Kurzweil
A look at how technology has assisted the blind, written for "The Futurecast" a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The End of Handicaps, Part 2 By Ray Kurzweil
How technology has and will continue to assist the disabled, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Paradigms and Paradoxes of Intelligence, Part 1: Russell's Paradox By Ray Kurzweil
An exploration of Russell's Paradox, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Paradigms and Paradoxes of Intelligence, Part 2: The Church-Turing Thesis By Ray Kurzweil
An exploration of the Church-Turing Thesis, originally written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

A Formula for Intelligence: The Recursive Paradigm By Ray Kurzweil
An explanation of the recursive approach to artificial intelligence, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

Another Formula for Intelligence: The Neural Net Paradigm By Ray Kurzweil
The neural net approach to artificial intelligence explained, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Paradigms and Paradoxes of Intelligence: Building a Brain By Ray Kurzweil
How to build a brain, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

Researching Health and Well-Being at the Library By Ray Kurzweil
Researching immortality, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Virtual Book Revisited By Ray Kurzweil
An addendum to predictions that appeared in The Age of Intelligent Machines, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Virtual Library By Ray Kurzweil
The changing library, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

The Virtual Village By Ray Kurzweil
How technology quietly topples governments, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

May the Smartest Machine Win: Warfare in the 21st Century By Ray Kurzweil
How technology is changing the ways in which wars are fought, written for "The Futurecast," a monthly column in the Library Journal. (Added August 6th 2001)

Bill Clinton Calls Many Political Leaders Out of Touch with the Acceleration of Technology at Fortune Summit By KurzweilAI.net
Bill Clinton calls many political leaders out of touch with the acceleration of technology, recommends Non Zero by Robert Wright and The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. (Added August 3rd 2001)

One Half of An Argument By Ray Kurzweil
A counterpoint to Jaron Lanier's dystopian visions of runaway technological cataclysm in "One Half of a Manifesto." (Added July 31st 2001)

The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video) By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil presents his law of accelerating returns at EXTRO-5. (Added July 30th 2001)

Foreword to 'The Eternal E-Customer' (book by Bryan Bergeron) By Ray Kurzweil
How have advances in electronic communications changed power relationships? The toppling of a government provides one not-so-subtle example. Ray Kurzweil talks about those advances in this forward to The Eternal E-Customer, a book that looks at the principles companies must adopt to meet the needs and desires of this new kind of customer. (Added July 26th 2001)

Foreword to 'Dark Ages II' (book by Bryan Bergeron) By Ray Kurzweil
Our civilization's knowledge legacy is at great risk, growing exponentially with the exploding size of our knowledge bases. And that doesn't count the trillions of bytes of information stored in our brains, which eventually will be captured in the future. How long do we want our lives and thoughts to last? (Added July 26th 2001)

In Response to By Ray Kurzweil
Although George Gilder and Richard Vigilante share Ray Kurzweil's grave concerns about Bill Joy's apparently neo-Luddite calls for relinguishing broad areas of technology, Kurzweil is critical of Gilder and Vigilante's skepticism regarding the feasibility of the dangers. (Added July 25th 2001)

Response to Fortune Editors' Invitational By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil was invited to participate in the 2001 Fortune Magazine conference in Aspen, Colorado, which featured luminaries and leaders from the worlds of technology, entertainment and commerce. Here are his responses to questions addressed at the conference. (Added July 11th 2001)

Spielberg catches Kubrick's Baton: A Review of By Ray Kurzweil
The androids and other intelligent machines in "A.I." represent well-grounded science futurism, says AI pioneer Raymond Kurzweil. (Added June 18th 2001)

Kurzweil's Future Coming Fast By Mark K. Anderson
Raymond Kurzweil talks to Wired about the promise and peril of technology. (Added May 31st 2001)

Raymond Kurzweil: Great Inventions By Jerry Borrell
Since age 17, Ray Kurzweil has built companies, authored books and advised startups. UPSIDE magazine Editor in Chief Jerry Borrell recently caught up with this innovative thinker. (Added May 31st 2001)

The Story of the 21st Century By Rebecca Zacks
Raymond Kurzweil created a hubbub with his idea that we will soon be able to "download" ourselves into machines and live forever. Find out what else he's got up his futuristic sleeve. (Added May 31st 2001)

Reading, Writing and Robots By Steffan Heuer
Wherever he looks, Raymond Kurzweil sees a pattern. Even if it's steamed lobster. (Added May 31st 2001)

Ray and Ramona: The Genius of Kurzweil By Mary Lyn Maiscott
Raymond Kurzweil does some virtual gender bending, among other things. (Added May 31st 2001)

Hello, HAL (a book review) By Colin McGinn
Colin McGinn reviews and compares books by three computer science experts in the New York Times Book Review, including Raymond Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines. (Added May 31st 2001)

Ray Kurzweil: Don't Fear the Nanofuture By Charles Cooper
Ray Kurzweil talks about virtual reality, nanobots, and Bill Joy's view of the future. (Added May 31st 2001)

Technology: There's a Future In It By Colin Brayton
An interview with Raymond Kurzweil at the Music and Internet Expo (Added May 31st 2001)

Tech Visionary Gets Inventor Prize By Charles Cooper
Raymond Kurzweil was going through the 20-odd messages left on his answering machine when his ears pricked up upon hearing the voice of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Lester Thurow. (Added May 31st 2001)

Tech Pioneer Kurzweil Sees Grand Digital Future By Stephen Shankland
According to Kurzweil, the result will be the deepest possible connection between the computer realm and perception, the ultimate virtual reality that incorporates not only the five senses but also centers of the brain that express humor, ecstasy or other feelings. (Added May 31st 2001)

The Future According To Ray Kurzweil By Alex Salkever
The visionary and author tells PC Expo-goers to expect mind-shattering, exponential development in computing and other tech fields and includes advice for Alan Greenspan (Added May 31st 2001)

Man and Machine Become One By Otis Port
Raymond Kurzweil spoke with BUSINESS WEEK Senior Writer Otis Port about nanotechnology, which may enable engineers to construct microscopic computers and robots, or nanobots, atom by atom. These machines could dramatically affect the future of human intelligence. (Added May 29th 2001)

An Inventive Author By Harriet Barovic
A look at Raymond Kurzweil's roots and beginnings in becoming an innovator. (Added May 25th 2001)

Question: How Will Broadband Impact the Way We Live? By David Kirkpatrick
Fortune Magazine asked the question, "How will broadband impact the way we live?" Raymond Kurzweil answers that question. (Added May 25th 2001)

$500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize awarded to futurist who makes a career of helping others By Lemelson-MIT Program
On April 24, 2001, Raymond Kurzweil was awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize, the world's largest single award for invention and innovation. (Added May 25th 2001)

2001 Lemelson-MIT Award Video By Lemelson-MIT Program
On April 24, 2001, Raymond Kurzweil was awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize for invention and innovation. See the video retrospective of his career and his acceptance speech, with a surprise from Stevie Wonder. (Added May 25th 2001)

Raymond Kurzweil at ACM1 By Ray Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil speaks at ACM1: Beyond Cyberspace about a future in which computers will appear to be conscious and the distinction between humans and machines will gradually disappear. (Added May 23rd 2001)

The 21st Century: a Confluence of Accelerating Revolutions By Ray Kurzweil
In this keynote given at the 8th Annual Foresight Conference, Raymond Kurzweil discusses exponential trends in various technologies, and the double-edged sword accelerating technologies represent. (Added May 15th 2001)

Live Forever--Uploading The Human Brain...Closer Than You Think By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil ponders the issues of identity and consciousness in an age when we can make digital copies of ourselves. (Added April 9th 2001)

Promise And Peril By Ray Kurzweil
Bill Joy wrote a controversial article in Wired advocating "relinquishment" of research on self-replicating technologies, such as nanobots. In this rebuttal, originally published in Interactive Week, Ray Kurzweil argues that these developments are inevitable and advocates ethical guidelines and responsible oversight. (Added April 9th 2001)

Singularity Math Trialogue By Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge, and Hans Moravec
Hans Moravec, Vernor Vinge, and Ray Kurzweil discuss the mathematics of the Singularity, making various assumptions about growth of knowledge vs. computational power. (Added March 28th 2001)

Ramona: Questions and Answers By Ray Kurzweil
Ramona's alter ego (Raymond Kurzweil) says that Ramona and the technology behind her is a step in the progression of our species from real reality to virtual reality. (Added March 27th 2001)

The Virtual Thomas Edison By Ray Kurzweil
As machines exceed human intelligence, will they threaten humanity? How will inventors keep up? Raymond Kurzweil lays out his vision of the future for Time Magazine's special issue on the future. (Added March 22nd 2001)

Nerd of the Week: Ray Kurzweil By Morgan Michaels
Nerdworld's interview with Ray Kurzweil reveals his early influences, his plans for art and poetry software, and his secret about how he invents: lucid dreaming. (Added March 7th 2001)

Kurzweil vs. Dertouzos By Ray Kurzweil and Michael L. Dertouzos
In this Technology Review article, Raymond Kurzweil and Michael Dertouzos debate Bill Joy's Wired article urging "relinquishment" of research in certain risky areas of nanotechnology, genetics, and robotics. (Added March 7th 2001)

The Law of Accelerating Returns By Ray Kurzweil
An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light. (Added March 7th 2001)

Human Cloning is the Least of It By Ray Kurzweil
In this message posted to the WIRED Future List, Raymond Kurzweil asserts that cloning--replicating animals, organs, and cells--has profound implications for health and well-being of both humans and animals, including a possible solution for world hunger. He also sees no problem with human cloning. (Added February 22nd 2001)

The Making of Ramona By Ray Kurzweil
On February 22, 2001, Ramona, a computer-generated virtual celebrity, made history at the TED11 conference. Here's the inside story. (Added February 22nd 2001)

Ramona's Story By Ray Kurzweil
Hey! It's me, Ramona, Raymond Kurzweil's virtual alter ego. I'm cuter than he is, I'm smarter, I write and perform my own music, and I'm as real as you! (Well, almost, I can't get speeding tickets and I don't pay taxes.) I thought you'd like to hear more about life, so check out my story! (Added February 22nd 2001)

The Web Within Us: Minds and Machines Become One. By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil's vision for the 21st century and beyond includes reverse-engineering the human brain and non-biological intelligences. (Added February 22nd 2001)

The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil predicts a future with direct brain-to-computer access and conscious machines. From Scientific American. (Added February 22nd 2001)

Soul of a New Machine By James Daly
Business 2.0 editor James Daly interviews Raymond Kurzweil on what happens when machines become conscious. (Added February 22nd 2001)

Dear PC: R.I.P. By Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil's vision of the post-PC future includes nanobots and fully immersive virtual reality. (Added February 22nd 2001)