itibaren Kaltovka, Respublika Bashkortostan, Rusya, 452416
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Ray Kurzweil has a long history in technology. In the 1970s he pioneered a dramatic combination of bleeding edge equipment into the first automatic text reading machine for the blind. At the time this was something of a herculean feat, a machine that could recognize text on a printed page and translate it (albiet haltingly) into spoken words. In Spiritual Machines Ray takes us where he believes the unconstrained trajectory of high technology leads: transformed humanity and machines combining into something both hyperintelligent and "spiritual". While I agree this course is possible, Ray's vision threads a rather narrow and "best case" path forward. Recall that by this time we were to be flying in supersonic aircraft and driving our cars at 200 mph on the freeway. I read lots of books about the history of technology, kind of the mirror image of Ray's book here. Technology tends to get bogged down by political, physical or social limits. In the case of supersonic aircraft it was (first) concerns over the effect of sonic booms, then pollution and most recently the release of global warming gases. At some level you can say these are all just engineering problems, but they take time and money to solve. So, while I dearly hope for the kind of rosey future Mr. Kurzweil predicts, I try to keep in mind that we need to keep steering society in the right direction to get there.
I feel dirty.
After reading a dangerous gentleman, I was excited to read more of Julia London's. I have to say that this book, while highly entertaining... didn't exactly match the quality of the other book. While there were some great moments in this book, it doesn't strike me as anything really memorable. I'll give London another chance though.