1. BOOK REVIEW: The Singularity Is Near
By Ackerbear Basilius
Texas A&M University—Central Texas
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of:
LSK-498-110-Lib Studies Capston Course
Dr. Carlton Downey
August, 2015

2. Ray Kurzweil was born on the 12th of February, 1948 in Queens, New York, United States.
The MIT Graduate took interest in computer science, inventions, authoring, and became a
futurist. The author is active in other fields such as movie productions, optical character
recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic
keyboard instruments. (Community, 2015) He has produced materials on health, artificial
intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurist. In addition, he often
speaks about life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics,
biotechnology, and how it will affect humanity in platform like TED. A National Medal of
Technology and Innovation receiver, recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Prize, inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame, receiver of twenty honorary doctorates, and honored by three
U.S. presidents, the acknowledgements truly celebrates a life’s work.
Kurzweil has wrote several books; The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual
Machines, The Singularity Is Near, The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life, How to Create a Mind:
The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever,
Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever.. Moreover, the author has been involved in a
documentary film like the Transcendent Man and wrote and co-produced a movie called The
Singularity Is Near: A True Story About the Future. The writer also speaks frequently to
audiences about the future of technologies, the rate its going, and how humans are going to be a
part of this technological evolutionary process. Furthermore, the author explains how
technologies will surpass human intelligent and goes inside our bodies and brains and make us
healthier, make us smarter.

3. In the work, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology; Kurzweil
describes “Singularity” as “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be
so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” In the book,
Kurzweil explains the progress through the six epochs, theory of technological evolution: the law
of accelerating returns, achieving the computational capacity of the human brain, achieving the
software of human intelligence: how to reverse engineer the human brain, GNR (genetics,
nanotechnology, and robotics): the three overlapping revolutions, the impact, and lastly
addressing the critics.
As the author points out on the onset, the exponential growth is in rapid incline, and in
areas of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, improvements are seeing accelerated growth.
The evolution of technology to the point that it can process, make decisions, repair, and design
itself is much plausible. The writer emphasis singularity, such super computer will be capable
of redesigning itself or of designing and building computers or machines better than itself is
going to extend human innovation, creativity to unforeseen levels . This progress will create
intelligence far exceeding human intellectual capacity, control, and regulation to a certain extent.
The author use science, math, technologies, reasoning, and logic to support his
arguments. For example, in the epochs, in the area of super-exponential growth, Kurzweil cites
the computer chip commerce. The overall budget for the whole industry increases over time,
since the fruits of exponential growth make it an attractive investment; meanwhile the additional
budget fuels more innovation which makes the industry grow even faster, effectively an example
of "double" exponential growth. (coates, 2015) In addition, the exponential growth, the author
characterizes evolution throughout all time as progressing through six epochs, each one building

4. on the one before. He says the four epochs which have occurred so far are Physics and
Chemistry, Biology and DNA, Brains, and Technology. Kurzweil predicts the Singularity will
coincide with the next epoch, The Merger of Human Technology with Human Intelligence. After
the Singularity he says the final epoch will occur, The Universe Wakes Up. (Community, 2015)
The Authors usage of various information and sources convincingly support his argument
that technology is growing in an unprecedented rate and that “our technology, our machines, is
part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about
human beings,” writes Kurzweil. The assigned reading presented many excitements as one
begins to think of the possibilities to solve problems, self-expression, and to create better
communities and relationships between humans beings. With technologies comes the ease of
working, traveling, communicating, and would present other avenues of relaxing and
enjoyments. The author used elements of style in the assignment effectively and efficiently. For
instance, he utilized examples, graphs, charts, and explanations that conveyed the message in an
understandable and clear way.
The word choice, sentence structure, paragraph development, and overall organization of
the reading were enjoyable, engaging, and visual. These style elements affect the clarity of the
work and the author’s communicative effort by transparency and factuality. The thesis of the
book is artificial intelligence surpassing the human intelligence. Kurzweil says, “Artificial
intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045; we
will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our
civilization a billion-fold,” “Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller.

5. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter.”
(Kurzweil, 2015)
This technological process that the author presents will lead toward the merger of
machines and humans is inevitable and could present advantages beyond today’s comprehension
as well as threats that will challenge the whole human race. With these advancements risk
evolves. Societies will be altered significantly to absorb the need for such furtherance and
resources will be in great demand. Currently, the exploration of Mars and beyond might reveal
some resources and potential settlement sights which would be of great benefit to the human race
when machines start asserting their place on earth. One way is to set limitations, boundaries, and
provide protocols that would never be breached. But, that would only be temporary and like all
lines and boundaries, they too will be crossed and people with radical ideologies will use the
advancements of technology to cater their extreme activities. Setting limits would stall the
progress and the wonderful solutions technology offers. Therefore, Human race have to evolve
and utilize technology to the fullest of its potential, which is unlimited one would think.
Optimism must be incorporated as human’s leaps forward with the assistance of their tools.

6. Works Cited
coates,j.(2015). http://www.josephcoates.com. RetrievedAugust7,2015, fromjosephcoates.com:
http://www.josephcoates.com/pdf_files/285_Kurzweil_Singularity.pdf
Community.(2015, July19). The Singularity IsNear.RetrievedAugust7,2015, fromWikipidia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near
KURZWEIL, R. (2005). The SingularityIs Near. New York,:VikingPenguin.
Kurzweil,R.(2015). http://www.brainyquote.com.RetrievedAugust7,2015, from
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/ray_kurzweil_2.html