Ray Kurzwiel

Society Religion & Philosophy
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Has anybody ever heard of him or his familiar with any of his work??

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

is*

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Kurzweil is a true visionary. I have followed him on-off for a while now and I seriously think people need to pay more attention to what he says.

The Singularity Concept is so deep and sure seems like the future. Don't bet against Kurzweil. Especially considering his past views on the 'future'.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Im not against him. In fact i can see his singularity concept taking place right now. Admitedly when i was reading through his spiritual machines book some of the stuff was a bit over my head. But the singularity concept is based on the idea that humans and machine/computers will become a single entity in the future. And this is happening at quite an alarming pace. If you think back to the 80s, computers (im taking about the gigantic old fasioned ones) was a big thing. The idea of ipods and iphones was farfetched. Then fast forward some 30 years and the iphone etc is not just invented but taken for granted. Plastic surgery is an example of where the singularity concept really comes into play cuz you have un natural elements entering the human body. Just the other day i seen something on the news - research was being conducted about a chip of some sort which is supposed to numb the feeling of pain once injected into the patient(didnt know how they did it but they did). Once it was injected into the patient in this case it did just that (If i can find the clip ill post it at some point).

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

I never implied that.

Anyways, I do agree with you and well, its not uncommon knowledge.
This is the way the future is going and the visions of Kurzweil are a great hint to what is coming.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

lol yeah i know. Intelligent guy obviously but from some of his interviews he comes across as a bit absent minded lol

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Peace

I don't know of the guy ... but being able to make assertions of future possibilities based on current trends makes him an analyst not a philosopher ...

What I would like to hear from him is what he feels "should" be happening and whether he feels where humanity is taking itself is the "right" thing or not ...

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

^wrong.

Modern philosophy is about what the future will be based on what is, NOT sulking in what they see and posing their biased opinions as philosophical works, (Descartes, etc)

Read Nietzsche.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Peace Pepsi ki Botal

I could be wrong no doubt ... so you say that modern philosophy is different from classic philosophy (I agree), but you say that the difference is that modern philosophy is about "what the future will be based on" ... Please explain this to me ... and perhaps a few examples ... we are all here to learn aren't we? Also, perhaps use Ray Kurzwiel in your example.

Also, please explain what you mean by "posing their biased opinions as philosophical works" ... presumably you are saying "philosophical works should NOT be biased - which means they are objective and not subjective" or if you are not then please explain how you may feel something that cannot be proven is unbiased valid philosophy according to your definition.

Another side question - do you feel that modern minds are better qualified to determine what is correct and hence when someone like Nietzsche writes his words are better or more useful than the words of say Socrates ... ? I guess each of these can be threads all in their own right ... but entertain me please.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

^arey ap to naraz he ho gaye. =\

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Peace Botal

Aap kee Pepsi flat ho gai ... :) Ye lo ... thora namak le do ... shaid zakhumon ke andar ja kar aap ki fizz dubara aa jai ... thoree der ke liye ... at least!

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Y U SO MAD BRO?

Ray Kurzweil does not call himself a philosopher. Neither did anyone in this thread.
His work however is pretty philosophical.
His commentary on man and machine and how trends will shape our lives are as philosophical as you'll get.

Eitherway if you haven't read of his work then I don't believe you have any basis for your objections.

P.S. I bet 10 quid.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Peace GIDSA

I'm not angry at all ... why should I be? I'm merely asking a question ... why is Ray Kurzwiel ... I was going by your post "he is a true visionary" ... do you mean he is "prophetic" or do you mean he is "thinking about how we should operate in future" ... but it appears from what I have read about him is that he is neither ... (Note: I have not read his material - so there is no need to bet since my query was not questioning the validity of his material, but rather the premise of this discussion) ... it appears that he is merely analysing where humanity is taking itself, he is a social scientist ... I was more or less hoping that topics about him would be put in science and nature, career and academics before being put in to philosophy and spirituality ...

It is true that social science is a branch of philosophy, but it is a branch of science before that ... It would be good for you to elaborate here about him as I am truly interested in what he has to say ... I just don't feel he should be equated as a philosopher even if the impact of his predictions may impact the philosophy of being human in the way we know it today.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

no need for the personal attack. what are you so angry about? :confused:

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Peace Pepsi ki Botal

I made no personal attack … I was joking … and I’m not angry … LOL … I’m sorry if my abruptness has taken you aback … I expect discussions about philosophy and it seems that you know a thing or two about Kurzwiel … So please bring here something about him that makes Descartes look like a baby. I mean it is easy to say “^wrong” but can you back it up?

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Do you really think I am going to type up essays for you knowing very well how you take other people's addition to any discussion? do some yoga and stop being so angry =\

outta here.

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

See ya later ...:p

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Found an interesting quote from R.K

"Take death for example. A great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it; we make extraordinary efforts to delay it and often consider it's intrusion a tragic event. Yet we'd find it hard to live without it. Death gives meaning to our lives, it gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it. If death were indefinitely put off, the human psyche would end up, well, like the Gambler in the Twilight Zone episode."

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

Kurzweil says, "i want to live long enough to be able to live forever"
We backup all our computers so data is not lost, and soon we will start making sure our brains (the biggest computers of all) doesn't lose data. Once we start that backup process we will figure out how to virtualize the brain (like we virtualize computers) and keep them on (process known as Physical-to-Virtual, or P2v). Once we have a virtualized version of a human's brain we don't really need to have a real (human) body and technically, you can live forever.
Simple!

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Re: Ray Kurzwiel

im just really getting into his book now - age of spiritual machines. Really clever how he used molly - a normal human to illustrate his concept and relate it to your everyday person - and about how she starts off normal but goes through changes and by the year 2099 she is over 100 years old , but she is human yet she is a machine. Something she said really struck me "im ready to be anything you want or need". Ill leave that to ur interpretation