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A review by orange_flower
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil
1.0
The author is delusional at best and a terrible researcher at worst. Even his initial premise of researchers underestimating the rate of scientific and technological progress falls apart immediately. He makes the claim that researchers are pessimists and cannot accurately predict growth rates, but also that humans will practically be cyborg by 2030. So the scientists are smart enough to create this grand technology but can't estimate the time it will take? It simply doesn't make sense.
Asserting that humanity's progress is exponential is also laughable, as this is true for maybe a small percentage of tech, and there is barely any proof provided that a singularity would follow such a trend.
Considering that most of Kurzweil's predictions have not come true, I can safely say that this book is not worth reading. It has been 20 years since the book was published, and neither nanotechnology nor AI is at the level that he describes for a singularity to occur. DNF due to how underdeveloped and scientifically inaccurate the arguments were.
Asserting that humanity's progress is exponential is also laughable, as this is true for maybe a small percentage of tech, and there is barely any proof provided that a singularity would follow such a trend.
Considering that most of Kurzweil's predictions have not come true, I can safely say that this book is not worth reading. It has been 20 years since the book was published, and neither nanotechnology nor AI is at the level that he describes for a singularity to occur. DNF due to how underdeveloped and scientifically inaccurate the arguments were.