The Singularity Is Nearer

When We Merge with AI

By: Ray Kurzweil

Narrated by: Adam Barr

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform 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 an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public.

In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. 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 connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.

The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with illustrations and graphs from the book.

Cause for optimism and the need for Democracy.

Found this amazing and unbelievable. The transformative power of these technologies on the human species highlights the need for Democracy. The content is astounding if only a fraction of these predictions come to fruition. The Statistics were a bit much to take in as a listen (as opposed to a read) for me personally, and the narration was a little droning, but the content is a listen everyone should hear and understand.

A brilliant book

Ray Kurzweil has the best record for accurately predicting technological developments in the business, And in this book He vividly and brilliantly describes what the future is going to look like. And it’s pretty amazing!

Humans embrace limitless learning opportunities

Xenial artificial technology generates astonishing world-changing results. Yielding limitless understanding, Kurzweil's vision.
- AI generated and human curated.

immediacy of evolving technologies that exponential growth provides.

Can't wait to experience this book in 3-D, immersing in its expanding revelations. A video hyperlinks supplement would be useful.

Felt like a rehash

Lots of numbers, not a lot of substance, Felt like getting a history lesson of things I’ve already read without getting much “future tech” insight.