The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Kurzweil, Ray

ISBN 10: 0143037889 / ISBN 13: 9780143037880

Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, NY, 2006

About this Item

New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. First published by Viking Penguin: 2005. Published by Penguin Books: 2006. 21st printing. Large 8vo. Xx + [652] pp. Gift inscription on title page. An unread copy. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 672 pages First Paperback Edition; Twenty-First Printing.

Seller Inventory # 27050

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, NY
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143037889
• ISBN 13: 9780143037880
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine+
• Weight: 1.74 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil presents an “elaborate, smart, and persuasive” (The Boston Globe) view of the future course of human development.

“Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.”—Los Angeles Times
“Startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“An important book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity.

While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near presents a radical and optimistic view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

About the Author

Ray Kurzweil is a world class inventor, thinker, and futurist, with a thirty-five-year track record of accurate predictions. He has been a leading developer in artificial intelligence for more than six decades—longer than any other living person. He was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizer, music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software. Ray received a GRAMMY® Award for outstanding achievement in music technology. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has written five books including The Singularity Is Near and How to Create a Mind, both New York Times bestsellers, and Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, winner of multiple young adult fiction awards. He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google.