‼️ The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil‼️

 67/∞

🔑 Key Words: #Biotechnology #AI #Future #Inventions 

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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5)  (very recommend read)

📚 Length: 432 pages

🔊Audiobook: 10 hrs and 25 min

Why you should read this book?

💡To see what fields are going to be changed by AI and how.

💡See, if you should start looking for a new job as AI might replace you in a few years.

💡Some of the prediction are just mind blowing 😮.

In my own opinion, Ray Kurzweil falls into the same category as books written by Václav Smil and Bill Gates with the difference that Kurzweil gives and account of the current state of the world and then he ventures into the future. Here is important to note, that he ventures far beyond Gated and Smil. He goes totally off the leash. What Kurzweil, Gates and Smil share, is that they are all focused on solving problems.

Kurzweil’s book is not exclusively about the AI. It is more about how the different fields will change in the future with the help of the information technology. The name of a book is a bit of a marketing move, but it does not lower down it’s added value.

The main idea which links all of the topics of this book together is 'the Law of Accelerating Returns' - to put this simply, the computing power quadruples every year. This accelerates the technology development and enables us to create cheaper and more accessible technology every single year. This helps us to speed up the process of inventing things and achieve higher quality of life.

Now, what is 'SINGULARITY?’ and why Kurzweil talks about it? 

…

This is the moment when humans will become one with technology and our brains would be able to access online cloud data at any given time thanks to modules implanted in human brains. Kurzweil mentions and discusses the most recent discoveries of Elon Musk’s Neurolink, which is just another step preceded by the module implants helping people who lost a limb. This is done through linking silicone sensors to neurones in human brain. We are not able to hook up such a vast number of sensors to fully merge with the AI, yet. But similar technology is used to help people who have hearing disability or lost their limbs. These artificial limbs are controlled thanks to the same technology and principle, which should merge us with AI one day.

Kurzweil predicts that we will be able to 'hook up’ our brains to computers via Neurolink-like devices in a near future (maybe 2030'?). This will enable humans to think in 10 D dimensions. Also the amount of information humans would be able to access will be unimaginable today. This almost slips into the sci-fi literature, but he predicts there will be Humans 1.0 (technologically unenhanced) and humans 2.0 (technologically advanced).

Ultimately, Kurzweil uses the step of singularity which will unleash a new technological revolution. Invention of many things he predicts, depends on this step.

Now, let’s go to some concrete ideas and examples of how the world will be changed by new inventions. I enjoyed the most the cheaper about agriculture, medicine and jobs.

Future of Agriculture

Over centuries, the number of people working in agriculture is declining. In the middle ages, almost every person had to work in agriculture in order to survive. Nowadays, only 3% of people in the developed countries work in agriculture. This number is expected to keep declining to e.g. 1.2%.

AI will eventually turn agriculture in information technology whit the help of greater automatisation. It will help us to grow more food regardless the season and clime. It will also help us to grow more food with the help of vertical farming.

The future of many jobs

Kurzweil argues that many jobs will disappear in the future. These jobs include drivers, graphic designers etc. When it come to drivers, they are nearly obsolete now. When you book an Uber in L.A. or San Francisco, you are likely to get a driverless car. It is the driver, who is the biggest expense while driving a taxi. This will make taxi services way cheaper, but loads of people will be required to retrain (probably with the help of government) and find a new profession.

Kurzweil uses wisely some critique of Daniel Kahneman (who wrote Think Fast and Slow - I have read about 1/3 and then shelved it as I had no time, but maybe I can review it in the future). Kahneman says that in the future a few people will become rich, but a small group of people who were left behind won’t be able to retrain and make it in life. Kurzweil is in my own opinion a way too optimistic. He even talks about 'universal income.' As I worked in diplomatic services in Canada, I know, that universal income was tested there. While I think that rich and developed countries might be able to implement it in the future, I am more sceptical about continents like Africa or parts of the continents, like Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, Kurzweil claims that more AI and more automatisation will free humans and give them opportunity to focus on what they enjoy about their way of doing business. E.g. a graphic designer will create a picture with AI and would be able to discuss more in the detail with the client how the picture is going to look like. The future graphic designer does only some minor changes as requested by the client.

When it comes to me, I am seriously worried about the ability of people to catch up with the changes of the job market.

Every book written by an American who grew up in abundance is in my opinion almost disgustingly positive, but the entire planet is not the USA. It is harsh place to live. This book would be a beautiful contrast to Karl Marx’s Capital  (reviewed by der Kaiser 👑) when writing some of essay on the future with social aspects of manufacturing and people.

On the positive side, Kurzweil says that many jobs won't be replaced as the require human interaction. He named professions like social workers (I note this is probably the lowest paid job on planet earth) and many others.

In general, Kurzweil contents that in the future there will be even more jobs and even less poverty, because everything is going to be cheaper to manufacture. I am sceptical about that. I do agree that everything so going to be cheaper to manufacture, but the margin is going to be eaten up by the evil capitalists. I say, this means that regular people won’t be richer.

Construction and 3D printing

Kurzweil points out that 3D printing will make construction of new houses cheaper and more efficient. He also mentions that new 3D printing technologies will make construction of sky scrapers cheaper. The higer the skyscraper, the higher the cost. Kurzweil argues that the foundation will be built in a conventional way, whilst the the high located floors of a skyscraper will be made with the help of 3D printing and liquid concrete.

3D printing will also make breakthrough in medicine. It will be possible to print out the entire tailor made joints with the help of 3D printing. Maybe, the 3D printer will be able to print them out into the humans during the surgery.

While we are talking about medicine, Kurzweil mentions that the surgeries will be in the future done by robots, which are more accurate and can do more surgeries in their lifespan than humans. He points out that there is a robot on China, which was able to perform a dental surgery without a help of human and this surgery was done better than if it was done by a human.

One of the examples of the futuristic use of 3D printing is the company which 3D prints your new shoes based on the picture of your feet scanned thanks to help of a mobil phone app. (I hope that this company doesn’t have a contract with Only Fans and that the pictures of people’s  feet 🦶 are well protected).

Nanobots and the gray goo

Kurzweil also mentions that a whole range of treatments of all kinds of diseases will be possible by nanobots, which will be simply injected into the human body and destroy the faulty cancer cells.

There is a dark side though. He is worried that so called 'gray goo' - a cluster of nanobots would be able to take over the humans as they might become unstoppable unless managed properly.

I enjoyed Kurzweil’s philosophical hints on the relation of humans and AI bolstered by quotes from Robert Piercig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (reviewed by der Kaiser 👑).

The book finished of author’s conversation with an AI tool called Cassandra, which I find bizarre, but so be it.

Kaiser’s Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5)  (very recommend read)

Initially, I wanted to award this book just 4 stars. I felt that it was somehow similar to Smil and Gates. But in the other half of the book, I started to understand that the main link is the information technology and the law of accelerated returns. Some of the ideas e.g. how agriculture is going to improve nad what role the information technology is going to play in it, started to convince me there is really something novel and extraordinary about this book.

👉 Buy this book! 👈 through my link and help me build this website! 😊

Feel free to like, share and comment or recommend books/courses you find inspirational yourself. I’m keen to hear about them.

Coming Up Next:

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari