Comments on: The future is sooner than you think

By: Chip Camden

Chip Camden — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:36:19 +0000

The difference is, though, that the computer itself didn’t study its opponent to gain that knowledge. Its programmers put their knowledge of the opponent into its algorithms.

By: Chip Camden

Chip Camden — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:32:09 +0000

The King James Bible has done little to keep English unchanged. I daresay most modern readers have quite a bit of difficulty with its language, unless they were raised reading it.

French has preserved itself far better since the Middle Ages thanks to the Académie Française. Like all modern languages, it has been invaded by American terminology — but the basic syntax, grammar and most of the vocabulary remains relatively unchanged. Even though it is the sanctification of one of the worst bastardized forms of Latin.

By: Trutherator

Trutherator — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:27:28 +0000

I agree. In the mid-1970s I wrote to a manufacturer advertising optical-digitizer devices and suggested writing software to convert images of typewritten pages into coded text. The exec wrote back (I kid you not) saying “at the expense of sounding like IBM” when Asanatoff proposed a digital computer in the 1930’s, it was not feasible or workable, and not worth trying.

I also yearned to develop translator software, but I think it’s one of the most difficult things, and considering the fickle nature of language, maybe not completely possible. Only the King James Bible has kept the English language as one of the most stable languages in the world…

By: Trutherator

Trutherator — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:16:37 +0000

I aleady have eternal life, because when given the opportunity I received Jesus Christ, and I will never die. (I had to make sure it was factually and logically feasible first and found it so.)

If he has had the same opportunity, Kurzweil will die at some point, of that I’m sure, unless he has done the same, if he has had the opportunity.

By: Trutherator

Trutherator — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:12:16 +0000

The computerized chess champion prediction still holds, since the computer (actually the computerized algorithms) did beat the champion.

After all, also, this is a technique used by all champions, and in all professional competitive activities where applicable, that is, studying your opponents’ strategies, tactics, and patterns.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:13:04 +0000

I read Fantastic Voyage, The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near, and they changed my life. I even found some of his lectures on Itunes and I find myself impatiently awaiting his next book.

Recently read another incredible book that I can’t recommend highly enough, especially to all of you who also love Ray Kurzweil’s work. The book is “”My Stroke of Insight”" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. I had heard Dr Taylor’s talk on the TED dot com site and I have to say, it changed my world. It’s spreading virally all over the internet and the book is now a NYTimes Bestseller, so I’m not the only one, but it is the most amazing talk, and the most impactful book I’ve read in years. (Dr T also was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and Oprah had her on her Soul Series last month and I hear they’re making a movie about her story so you may already have heard of her)
If you haven’t heard Dr Taylor’s TEDTalk, that’s an absolute must. The book is more and deeper and better, but start with the video (it’s 18 minutes). Basically, her story is that she was a 37 yr old Harvard brain scientist who had a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. Because of her knowledge of how the brain works, and thanks to her amazingly loving and kind mother, she eventually fully recovered (and that part of the book detailing how she did it is inspirational).

There’s a lot of learning and magic in the book, but the reason I so highly recommend My Stroke of Insight to this discussion, is because we have powerfully intelligent left brains that are rational, logical, sequential and grounded in detail and time, and then we have our kinesthetic right brains, where we experience intuition and peace and euphoria. Now that Kurzweil has got us taking all those vitamins and living our best “”Fantastic Voyage”" , the absolute necessity is that we read My Stroke of Insight and learn from Dr Taylor how to achieve balance between our right and left brains. Enjoy!

By: beev

beev — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:23:16 +0000

It is questionable whether Deep Blue did actually beat Kasparov. See the film Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine for details.

By: Sheamus

Sheamus — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:04:33 +0000

Actually, my early flippancy aside, I’ve just read his entry on Wikipedia and while some of his predictions seem further off than he suggests (i.e., he expects mobile phones to carry technology that translates all the major languages by the early 2000s, so you can speak to anybody from anywhere in the world) and there’s a lot of vagueness about some other stuff, it makes for a fascinating read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil#Future_Predictions

By: Sheamus

Sheamus — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:34:06 +0000

Cynics *might* suggest that Mr Kurzweil has intentionally selected three topics - obesity, oil, technology - that consistently generate the most column inches of reportage (certainly on the Internet).

I mean, not *me*, but some people might…

By: Loren Pechtel

Loren Pechtel — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:20:42 +0000

He’s definitely on the highly optimistic end of the spectrum but I wouldn’t say he’s nuts.

By: Yohan Perera

Yohan Perera — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:54:42 +0000

You are correct. I agree with you brother.

By: Sampi

Sampi — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:55:21 +0000

Immortality? please…