Ray Kurzweil#Mid-life

Kurzweil grew up in Queens, New York City. He attended NYC Public Education Kingsbury Elementary School PS188. He was born to secular Jewish parents who had emigrated from Austria just before the onset of World War II. Through Unitarian Universalism he was exposed to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing.{{cite book | last=Peragine | first=Michael | date=2013 | title=The universal mind: The evolution of machine intelligence and human psychology | publication-place=San Diego | publisher=Xiphias Press | language=en | asin=B00BQ47APM | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvb0DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT106 | quote=He was born to secular Jewish parents who had escaped Austria just before the onset of World War II. He was exposed via Unitarian Universalism to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing.}}{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/playboy-re-invent-yourself-the-playboy-interview | last=Hochman | first=David | date=April 19, 2016 | title=Reinvent yourself: the Playboy interview with Ray Kurzweil | type=Interview | magazine=Playboy |language=en-US|access-date=2024-04-11}} The Unitarian church has a philosophy that there are many paths to the truth: his religious education consisted of studying one religion for six months before moving on to another.{{Cite book|last=Kurzweil|first=Ray|title=The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology|publisher=Viking|year=2005|isbn=978-0-670-03384-3|location=United States|pages=Prologue}} His father, Fredric, was a concert pianist, a noted conductor and a music educator. His mother, Hannah, was a visual artist. He is the elder of two children; his sister Enid, an accountant in Santa Barbara, is six years his junior.{{Cite web |date=2000-06-17 |title=Ray Kurzweil |url=https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/#interview |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Academy of Achievement |language=en-US}}

Ray Kurzweil decided at age five that he wanted to be an inventor.{{cite magazine | last=Rifken | first=Glen | date=March 18, 1991 | title=Raymond Kurzweil | type=Interview | magazine=Computerworld: The newsweekly of information systems management | volume=25 | number=11 | pages=75f | publisher=International Data Group | issn=0010-4841 | language=en | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfztUIpZm7UC&pg=PA75}} As a young boy, he had an inventory of parts from various construction toys he had been given and old electronic gadgets he had collected from neighbors. In his youth, Kurzweil was an avid reader of science fiction. At age eight, nine, and ten, he read the entire Tom Swift Jr. series. At age seven or eight, he built a robotic puppet theater and robotic game. He was involved with computers by age 12 (in 1960), when only a dozen computers existed in New York City, and built computing devices and statistical programs for the predecessor of Head Start.{{cite AV media | people=Ingrid Wickelgren (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | date=November 20, 2012 | title=Ray Kurzweil | work=After Words | publication-place=Washington, DC | publisher=National Cable Satellite Corporation | url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?309044-1/after-words-ray-kurzweil | access-date=11 April 2024}}{{cite web | last=Wickelgren | first=Ingrid | date=11 December 2012 | title=On TV, Ray Kurzweil tells me how to build a brain | type=Blog post | website=Scientific American | url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/streams-of-consciousness/on-tv-ray-kurzweil-tells-me-how-to-build-a-brain/ | access-date=11 April 2024}} At 14, Kurzweil wrote a paper detailing his theory of the neocortex.{{cite AV media | people=Diane Rehm (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | date=November 27, 2012 | title=Ray Kurzweil: "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" | work=The Diane Rehm Show | publication-place=Washington, DC | publisher=WAMU | url=https://dianerehm.org/shows/2012-11-27/ray-kurzweil-how-create-mind-secret-human-thought-revealed/transcript | access-date=11 April 2024}} His parents were involved with the arts, and he is quoted in the documentary Transcendent Man{{cite web |url=https://transcendentman.com/mind-boggling-technological-singularity-defined/ |title=Answering all your questions about The Technological Singularity |access-date=October 3, 2017 | website=Transcendent man: Prepare to evolve | date=2017-09-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003225351/https://transcendentman.com/mind-boggling-technological-singularity-defined/ | archive-date=2017-10-03}} as saying that the household always discussed the future and technology.{{cite AV media | title=Transcendent Man}}

Kurzweil attended Martin Van Buren High School. During class, he often held onto his class textbooks to seemingly participate while focusing on his own projects hidden behind the book. His uncle, an engineer at Bell Labs, taught Kurzweil the basics of computer science.{{cite web |title=Inventor of the Week |url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kurzweil.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102111050/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kurzweil.html |archive-date=2014-01-02 |access-date=2011-04-21 |publisher=Web.mit.edu}} In 1963, at 15, he wrote his first computer program.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=%2Farticles%2Fart0467.html |title=KurzweilAI.net |publisher=KurzweilAI.net |access-date=2011-04-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050222180825/http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=%2Farticles%2Fart0467.html |archive-date=2005-02-22 }}

Kurzweil created pattern-recognition software that analyzed the works of classical composers, then synthesized its own songs in similar styles. In 1965 he was invited to appear on the CBS television program I've Got a Secret,{{cite web|title= Ray Kurzweil Biography and Interview |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/#interview}} where he performed a piano piece composed by a computer he had built.{{cite video |people=Pedro Echevarria (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?194500-1/depth-ray-kurzweil |title=Ray Kurzweil |work=In Depth | publisher=Book TV |date=November 5, 2006 |access-date=2015-04-22}} Later in the year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention;{{cite web |url=http://www.societyforscience.org/Page.aspx?pid=261 |title=Alumni Honors |publisher=Society for Science and the Public |access-date=2010-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729231138/http://www.societyforscience.org/page.aspx?pid=261 |archive-date=2012-07-29 }} his submission to Westinghouse Talent Search of his first computer program alongside several other projects resulted in his being one of the contest's national winners, for which President Lyndon B. Johnson personally congratulated him during a White House ceremony. The experiences impressed upon Kurzweil the belief that nearly any problem could be overcome.{{cite magazine |url=https://techland.time.com/2010/04/02/an-interview-with-ray-kurzweil/ |title=An Interview With Ray Kurzweil | first=Doug | last=Aamoth |publisher=Time Inc. |magazine=Time |date=April 2, 2010 |access-date=September 25, 2014}}

While in high school, Kurzweil had corresponded with Marvin Minsky and was invited to visit him at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he did. Kurzweil also visited Frank Rosenblatt, a psychologist at Cornell.{{cite magazine | last=Michaels | first=Morgan | date=November 6, 2000 | title=Nerd of the Week: Ray Kurzweil | website=Nerdworld: Your source for nerdly culture, life, and work styles since 1995 | url=http://www.nerdworld.com/lf_notw_014.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010122032400/http://www.nerdworld.com/lf_notw_014.html | archive-date=2001-01-22}} Also archived by [https://www.pressandappearances.com/the-nerd-of-the-week-interview the Kurzweil Library + collections] He attended MIT to study with Minsky, obtaining a B.Sc. degree in computer science and literature in 1970. Kurzweil took all the computer programming courses (eight or nine) MIT offered in his first year and a half.

In 1968, during his second year at MIT, Kurzweil started a company that used a computer program to match high school students with colleges. The program, called the Select College Consulting Program, was designed by him and compared thousands of different criteria about each college with questionnaire answers each student applicant submitted. Around that time he sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World for $100,000 {{USDCY|100000|1968}} plus royalties.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raybio.html |title=Biography of Ray Kurzweil |publisher=Kurzweiltech.com |date=January 13, 1976 |access-date=2011-03-27}} In 1974, he founded Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc., and led development of the first omni-font optical character recognition system, a computer program capable of recognizing text written in any normal font. Before that time, scanners had been able to read text in only a few fonts. He decided that the technology's best application would be to create a reading machine, which would allow blind people to understand text by having a computer read it to them aloud. But the device required the invention of two enabling technologies—the CCD flatbed scanner and the text-to-speech synthesizer. Development of these technologies was completed at other institutions like Bell Labs, and on January 13, 1976, the finished product was unveiled during a news conference headed by Kurzweil and the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind. Called the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the device was large and covered an entire tabletop. Stevie Wonder heard about the demonstration of this new machine on The Today Show, and later became the user of the first production Kurzweil Reading Machine, beginning a long-term association with Kurzweil.{{Cite book|title=The Synthesizer|last=Vail|first=Mark|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0195394894|pages=76–78}}

Kurzweil's next major business venture began in 1978, when Kurzweil Computer Products began selling a commercial version of the optical character recognition computer program. LexisNexis was one of the first customers, and bought the program to upload paper legal and news documents to its nascent online databases. He sold Kurzweil Computer Products to Xerox, where it was first known as Xerox Imaging Systems and later as Scansoft; he was a consultant for Xerox until 1995. In 1999, Visioneer, Inc. acquired Scansoft from Xerox to form a new public company with Scansoft as the new company-wide name. Scansoft merged with Nuance Communications in 2005.

Kurzweil's next business venture was in electronic music technology. After a 1982 meeting with Stevie Wonder, in which Wonder lamented the divide in capabilities and qualities between electronic synthesizers and traditional musical instruments, Kurzweil was inspired to create a new generation of synthesizers that could duplicate the sounds of real instruments. Kurzweil Music Systems was founded in the same year, and in 1984, the Kurzweil K250 was unveiled. The machine could imitate a number of instruments, and according to Kurzweil's press packet, musicians could not tell the difference between the Kurzweil K250 on piano mode and a grand piano,{{cite journal |author=Byrd |first1=Donald |last2=Yavelow |first2=Christopher |name-list-style=and |year=1986 |title=The Kurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer |journal=Computer Music Journal |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=64–86 |doi=10.2307/3680298 |jstor=3680298}} though reviewers who actually attempted it questioned that.{{cite journal |title=

Kurzweil Digital Keyboard |journal=One Two Testing |volume=September |year=1984 |quote=". . . the piano sound wouldn't win any blindfold tests against a real grand if they were pitted against one another in the same room" |url=https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/kurzweil-digital-keyboard/8493}}{{cite journal |title=Kurzweil 250 |journal=Electronics & Music Maker |volume=December |year=1984 |quote="During the comparisons, this prompted me to start burying myself in sheet music to see how the 250 could cope with the tonal ebb and flow of Rachmaninoff and the atmospheric haze of Debussy. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Bosendorfer won on both counts . . . " |url=https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/kurzweil-250/8026}} The machine's recording and mixing abilities coupled with its ability to imitate different instruments made it possible for a single user to compose and play an entire orchestral piece.

South Korean musical instrument manufacturer Young Chang bought Kurzweil Music Systems in 1990. As with Xerox, Kurzweil remained as a consultant for several years. Hyundai acquired Young Chang in 2006, and in 2007 appointed Kurzweil as Chief Strategy Officer of Kurzweil Music Systems.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html%3Fid%3D6360 |title=Hyundai names Kurzweil Chief Strategy Officer of Kurzweil Music Systems |publisher=Kurzweilai.net |date=February 1, 2007 |access-date=2012-04-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513021858/http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html%3Fid%3D6360 |archive-date=2009-05-13 }} Concurrent with Kurzweil Music Systems, he created the company Kurzweil Applied Intelligence (KAI) to develop computer speech recognition systems for commercial use. The first product, which debuted in 1987, was an early speech recognition program. KAI was sold to Lernout & Hauspie in 1997.[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/16/business/lernout-hauspie-to-buy-kurzweil-applied-intelligence.html "LERNOUT & HAUSPIE TO BUY KURZWEIL APPLIED INTELLIGENCE – The New York Times"]

Kurzweil started Kurzweil Educational Systems (KESI) in 1996 to develop new pattern-recognition-based computer technologies to help people with disabilities such as blindness, dyslexia, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in school. Products include the Kurzweil 1000 text-to-speech converter software program, which enables a computer to read electronic and scanned text aloud to blind or visually impaired users, and the Kurzweil 3000 program, a multifaceted electronic learning system that helps with reading, writing, and study skills. Kurzweil sold KESI to Lernout & Hauspie. After the legal and bankruptcy problems of the latter, he and other KESI employees bought back the company. KESI was eventually sold to Cambium Learning Group, Inc.

File:Raymond Kurzweil, Stanford 2006 (square crop).jpg at Stanford University in 2006]]

During the 1990s, Kurzweil founded the Medical Learning Company.{{Cite web |date=March 27, 2014 |title=Google genius Ray Kurzweil predicts the future of technology |url=https://www.theneweconomy.com/business/google-genius-ray-kurzweil-predicts-the-future-of-technology |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=The New Economy |language=en-US}} In 1999, Kurzweil created a hedge fund called "FatKat" (Financial Accelerating Transactions from Kurzweil Adaptive Technologies), which began trading in 2006. He has said that the ultimate aim is to improve the performance of FatKat's A.I. investment software program, enhancing its ability to recognize patterns in "currency fluctuations and stock-ownership trends".{{cite news |url=https://fortune.com/2007/05/14/ray-kurzweil-innovation-artificial-intelligence/ |work=CNN |title=The Smartest (or the Nuttiest) Futurist on Earth |date=May 2, 2007 |access-date=July 26, 2016 |first1=Brian |last1=O'Keefe}} In his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil predicted that computers would one day be better than humans at making profitable investment decisions. In June 2005, Kurzweil introduced the "Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader" (K-NFB Reader)—a pocket-sized device consisting of a digital camera and computer unit. Like the Kurzweil Reading Machine of almost 30 years before, the K-NFB Reader is designed to aid blind people by reading written text aloud. The newer machine is portable and scans text through digital camera images, while the older machine is large and scans text through flatbed scanning.

In December 2012, Google hired Kurzweil in a full-time position to "work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing".{{cite news |last=Letzing |first=John |title=Google Hires Famed Futurist Ray Kurzweil |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/12/14/google-hires-famed-futurist-ray-kurzweil/?mod=WSJBlog&source=email_rt_mc_body&ifp=0 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=December 14, 2012 |access-date=2013-02-13}} Google co-founder Larry Page personally hired him.{{Cite web|url=http://singularityhub.com/2013/03/19/exclusive-interview-ray-kurzweil-discusses-his-first-two-months-at-google/|title=Exclusive Interview: Ray Kurzweil Discusses His First Two Months at Google|date=March 19, 2013}} Page and Kurzweil agreed on a one-sentence job description: "to bring natural language understanding to Google". Kurzweil received a Technical Grammy Award on February 8, 2015, specifically for his invention of the Kurzweil K250.{{cite web |url=http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/the-bee-gees-pierre-boulez-buddy-guy-george-harrison-flaco-jimenez |title=The Bee Gees, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Flaco Jimenez, Louvin Brothers and Wayne Shorter honored with the Recording Academy® Lifetime Achievement Award |publisher=grammy.org |date=December 18, 2014 |access-date=February 11, 2015 |archive-date=June 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611033851/https://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/the-bee-gees-pierre-boulez-buddy-guy-george-harrison-flaco-jimenez |url-status=dead }}

Kurzweil has joined the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics company. After his death, he has a plan to be perfused with cryoprotectants, vitrified in liquid nitrogen, and stored at an Alcor facility in the hope that future medical technology will be able to revive him.{{cite magazine |last=Philipkoski |first=Kirsten |title=Ray Kurzweil's Plan: Never Die |magazine=Wired |date=November 18, 2002 |url=https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2002/11/56448 |access-date=2013-02-11}}

Kurzweil is agnostic about the existence of a soul.{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/30/gb.01.html |work=CNN |title=CNN Transcript|date=May 30, 2008 |access-date=2016-01-05}} Of the possibility of divine intelligence, Kurzweil has said: "Does God exist? I would say 'Not yet.{{'"}}[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-immortal-ambitions-of-ray-kurzweil/ The Immortal Ambitions of Ray Kurzweil: A Review of Transcendent Man]; Scientific American; John Rennie; February 15, 2011 He married Sonya Rosenwald Kurzweil in 1975.{{cite web |url=https://www.crn.com/features/channel-programs/174907129/ray-kurzweil-founder-chairman-and-ceo-kurzweil-technologies.htm|title=Ray Kurzweil, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Kurzweil Technologies – CRN.com |work=CRN |date=December 9, 2005 |access-date=September 15, 2014}} Sonya is a psychologist in private practice in Newton, Massachusetts; she works with women, children, parents, and families. She holds faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and William James College in graduate education in psychology. Her research interests and publications are in psychotherapy practice. She also serves as an active overseer at Boston Children's Museum.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-article-on-integrating-digital-media-into-childrens-lives-by-my-wife-sonya-kurzweil-phd |title=Ask Ray – Article on integrating digital media into children's lives by my wife Sonya Kurzweil, PhD – KurzweilAI |access-date=September 15, 2014}} Ray and Sonya Kurzweil have a son, Ethan, a venture capitalist,{{cite news |url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324178904578340240851065014 |title=Father and Son Peer Into the Future of Tech |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=March 6, 2013 |access-date=October 28, 2014|last1=Efrati |first1=Amir }} and a daughter, Amy, a cartoonist.{{cite web |url=http://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/using-technology/ray-kurzweil/part-1-of-4/1245 |title=An Oral History Interview with Ray Kurzweil, Part 1 of 4 |work=American Foundation for the Blind |access-date=October 28, 2014 |archive-date=October 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028083636/http://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/using-technology/ray-kurzweil/part-1-of-4/1245 |url-status=dead }}Kurzweil, A. (2016). Flying couch: A graphic memoir. Catapult.

{{see also|Wait calculation}}

Kurzweil has said: "I realize that most inventions fail not because the R&D department can't get them to work, but because the timing is wrong{{nsmdns}}not all of the enabling factors are at play where they are needed. Inventing is a lot like surfing: you have to anticipate and catch the wave at just the right moment."{{cite web| url = https://www.uakron.edu/president/speeches_statements/?id=c6856afc-067b-40d5-bfc1-ac93f118e3f5| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140419011924/https://www.uakron.edu/president/speeches_statements/?id=c6856afc-067b-40d5-bfc1-ac93f118e3f5| url-status = dead| archive-date = April 19, 2014| title = The University of Akron – Speeches & Statements}}{{cite web |url=http://crnano.org/interview.kurzweil.htm |title=Nanotechnology: Ray Kurzweil Interviewed by Sander Olson|publisher= Center for Responsible Nanotechnology|access-date=September 15, 2014}} For the past several decades, Kurzweil's most effective and common approach to doing creative work has been conducted during a lucid dreamlike state immediately preceding his waking state. He claims to have constructed inventions, solved algorithmic, business strategy, organizational, and interpersonal problems, and written speeches in this state.

Kurzweil's first book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, was published in 1990. It discusses the history of computer artificial intelligence (AI) and forecasts future developments. Other AI experts contribute heavily to the book in the form of essays. The Association of American Publishers named it the Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990.{{cite journal |last=Colin |first=Johnson |title=Era of Smart People is Dawning |journal=Electronic Engineering Times |date=December 28, 1998}}

In 1993, Kurzweil published a book on nutrition, The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life. Its main idea is that high levels of fat intake are the cause of many health disorders common in the U.S., and thus that cutting fat consumption to 10% of total calories consumed is optimal for most people. In 1999, Kurzweil published The Age of Spiritual Machines, which further elucidates his theories of the future of technology, which stem from his analysis of long-term trends in biological and technological evolution. Much emphasis is on the likely course of AI development, along with the future of computer architecture. Kurzweil's next book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (2004), returns to human health and nutrition and is co-authored by Terry Grossman, a medical doctor and specialist in alternative medicine.

The Singularity Is Near, published in 2005, was made into a movie starring Pauley Perrette. In 2007, Ptolemaic Productions acquired the rights to The Singularity Is Near, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and Fantastic Voyage, including the rights to film Kurzweil's life and ideas for the documentary film Transcendent Man, directed by Barry Ptolemy. Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever,{{cite web |url=http://www.rayandterry.com/transcend/ |title=Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever |publisher=Rayandterry.com |access-date=October 26, 2014 |archive-date=October 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026113645/http://www.rayandterry.com/transcend/ |url-status=dead }} a follow-up to Fantastic Voyage, was released in 2009. Kurzweil's book How to Create a Mind was released in 2012.{{cite news |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweils-how-to-create-a-mind-published |title=Ray Kurzweil's How to Create a Mind published |date=November 17, 2012 |publisher=KurzweilAInet |access-date=October 26, 2014}} In it he describes his Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind, the theory that the neocortex is a hierarchical system of pattern recognizers, and argues that emulating this architecture in machines could lead to artificial superintelligence.{{Cite book |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |title=How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed |year=2012 |publisher=Viking Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-02529-9}}

Kurzweil's first novel, Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, follows a girl who uses her intelligence and her friends' help to tackle real-world problems. It follows a structure akin to the scientific method. Chapters are organized as year-by-year episodes from Danielle's childhood and adolescence.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/danielle/|title=Review of Danielle|website=www.forewordreviews.com|date=June 27, 2019 |language=en|access-date=2019-11-20}} The book comes with companion materials, A Chronicle of Ideas and How You Can Be a Danielle, that provide real-world context. It was released in 2019.{{cite web |url=https://www.danielleworld.com/ |title=Ready to change the world |access-date=August 14, 2018}}

Kurzweil's latest book, The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, was published in 2024.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Daniel S. |date=2024-03-07 |title=The Singularity is Nearer |url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-singularity-is-nearer/ |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=The Times of Israel}}

In 2010, Kurzweil wrote and co-produced the film The Singularity Is Near: A True Story About the Future, directed by Anthony Waller and based in part on the book The Singularity Is Near. Part fiction, part nonfiction, the film blends interviews with 20 big thinkers (such as Marvin Minsky) with a narrative story that illustrates some of Kurzweil's key ideas, including a computer avatar (Ramona) who saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots. An independent, feature-length documentary, Transcendent Man, was made about Kurzweil, his life, and his ideas.

In 2010, an independent documentary film, Plug & Pray, premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival, in which Kurzweil and one of his major critics, the late Joseph Weizenbaum, argue about the benefits of eternal life.{{cite news |title=Plug & Pray |url=https://variety.com/2010/film/reviews/plug-pray-1117944183/ |access-date=October 17, 2021 |date=December 8, 2010}} Independent filmmaker Doug Wolens's feature-length documentary film The Singularity (2012) showcases Kurzweil and has been acclaimed as "a large-scale achievement in its documentation of futurist and counter-futurist ideas" and "the best documentary on the Singularity to date".

On December 12, 2000, Columbia Records released the Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace's album Spiritual Machines. Although not initially so intended, the project evolved into a conceptual interpretation of Kurzweil's 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines. The band emailed Kurzweil to ask permission to use the title of his book for their project. Kurzweil's excitement at the prospect prompted them to invite him to record spoken excerpts from his book for the album. As a result, short tracks of spoken dialog by Kurzweil are interspersed among the album's songs. The Kurzweil K250 keyboard is also used on the album.Chiu, Ellen {{cite web |url=http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2000/10/2501.cfm |title="OLP Are Spiritual Machines" |access-date=2017-02-26 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031004075029/http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2000/10/2501.cfm |archive-date=October 4, 2003 |df=mdy-all }} Chartattack.com October 25, 2000. Retrieved 2009-11-16

{{main|The Law of Accelerating Returns}}

In his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil proposed "The Law of Accelerating Returns", according to which the rate of change in a wide variety of evolutionary systems (including the growth of technologies) tends to increase exponentially.Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, Viking, 1999, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ldAGcyh0bkUC&pg=PA630 p. 30] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ldAGcyh0bkUC&pg=PA632 p. 32]. He further emphasized this issue in his 2001 essay "The Law of Accelerating Returns", which proposes an extension of Moore's law to a wide variety of technologies and argues in favor of John von Neumann's concept of a technological singularity.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns |title=The Law of Accelerating Returns |access-date=September 15, 2014 |archive-date=January 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114213500/http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns |url-status=dead }}

Kurzweil was working with the Army Science Board in 2006 to develop a rapid response system to deal with the possible abuse of biotechnology. He suggested that a bioterrorist could use the same technologies that empower us to reprogram biology away from cancer and heart disease to reprogram a virus to be more deadly, communicable, and stealthy. But he suggests we have the scientific tools to defend against such an attack, much as we defend against computer software viruses. Kurzweil has testified before Congress on nanotechnology, saying that it has the potential to solve serious global problems such as poverty, disease, and climate change: "Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill".{{cite web |date=July 2006 |title=Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill |url=http://www.qsinano.com/pdf/ForbesWolfe_NanotechReport_July2006.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023163838/http://www.qsinano.com/pdf/ForbesWolfe_NanotechReport_July2006.pdf |archive-date=October 23, 2013 |access-date=June 16, 2011}}

In media appearances, Kurzweil has stressed nanotechnology's extreme potential dangers but argues that, in practice, progress cannot be stopped because that would require a totalitarian system, and any attempt to do so would drive dangerous technologies underground and deprive responsible scientists of the tools needed for defense. He suggests that the proper place of regulation is to ensure that technological progress proceeds safely and quickly but does not deprive the world of profound benefits. He said: "To avoid dangers such as unrestrained nanobot replication, we need relinquishment at the right level and to place our highest priority on the continuing advance of defensive technologies, staying ahead of destructive technologies. An overall strategy should include a streamlined regulatory process, a global program of monitoring for unknown or evolving biological pathogens, temporary moratoriums, raising public awareness, international cooperation, software reconnaissance, and fostering values of liberty, tolerance, and respect for knowledge and diversity."{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanotechnology-dangers-and-defenses |title=Nanotechnology Dangers and Defenses |publisher=KurzweilAI |access-date=2013-07-28 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004175320/http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanotechnology-dangers-and-defenses |url-status=dead }}

Kurzweil admits that he cared little for his health until age 35, when he was found to suffer from a glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes (a major risk factor for heart disease). He then found a doctor, Terry Grossman, who shared his unconventional beliefs and helped him to develop an extreme regimen involving hundreds of pills, chemical intravenous treatments, red wine, and various other methods to attempt to extend his lifespan. In 2007, Kurzweil was ingesting "250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea" every day and drinking several glasses of red wine a week in an effort to "reprogram" his biochemistry.{{cite magazine |date=February 12, 2005 |title=Never Say Die: Live Forever |url=https://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0%2C1286%2C66585%2C00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224022313/http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66585,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3 |archive-date=February 24, 2007 |access-date=September 15, 2014 |magazine=WIRED}} By 2008, he had reduced the number of supplement pills to 150. By 2015, Kurzweil further reduced his daily pill regimen to 100 pills.{{cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/ray-kurzweils-immortality-diet-2015-4 |title=The 700-calorie breakfast you should eat if you want to live forever, according to a futurist who spends $1 million a year on pills and eating right|work=Business Insider |access-date=March 3, 2019}}

Kurzweil asserts that in the future, everyone will live forever.{{cite web |date=July 3, 2012 |title=As Humans and Computers Merge … Immortality? |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-humans-and-computers-merge-immortality#transcript |website=PBS NewsHour |publisher=}} In a 2013 interview, he said that in 15 years, medical technology could add more than a year to one's remaining life expectancy for each year that passes, and we could then "outrun our own deaths". Among other things, he has supported the SENS Research Foundation's approach to finding a way to repair aging damage, and has encouraged the general public to hasten their research by donating.{{cite web |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324504704578412581386515510 |title=Will Google's Ray Kurzweil Live Forever? |date=April 12, 2013 |work=WSJ |access-date=September 15, 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.exponentialtimes.net/videos/ray-kurzweil-sens-3 |title=Ray Kurzweil At SENS 3 | Video |publisher=Exponential Times |date=August 25, 2011 |access-date=2013-07-28}}

Kurzweil's standing as a futurist and transhumanist has led to his involvement in several singularity-themed organizations. In 2004, he joined the advisory board of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.{{cite web |url=http://www.singinst.org/aboutus/board |title=Board – Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence |work=Singularity University |access-date=September 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421072724/http://singinst.org/aboutus/board |archive-date=April 21, 2010 |url-status=dead }} In 2005, he joined the scientific advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation.{{cite web |url=http://lifeboat.com/ex/boards#robotics |title=Lifeboat Foundation Advisory Boards |access-date=September 15, 2014}} On May 13, 2006, Kurzweil was the first speaker at the Singularity Summit at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/12/BUG9IIMG1V197.DTL&type=printable |title=Printable version: Smarter than thou? / Stanford conference ponders a brave new world with machines more powerful than their creators |date=May 12, 2006 |work=SFGate |access-date=September 15, 2014}} In 2013, he was the keynote speaker at the Research, Innovation, Start-up and Employment (RISE) international conference in Seoul. In 2009, Kurzweil, Google, and the NASA Ames Research Center announced the creation of the Singularity University training center for corporate executives and government officials. The university's self-described mission is to "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity's grand challenges". Using Vernor Vinge's Singularity concept as a foundation, the university offered its first nine-week graduate program to 40 students in 2009.

Kurzweil views the human body as a system of thousands of "programs" and believes that understanding all their functions could be the key to building truly sentient AI.{{Cite web |date=July 5, 2022 |title=Sentient AI? Convincing you it's human is just part of LaMDA's job |url=https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/sentient-ai-convincing-you-it-s-human-just-part-lamda-s-job |access-date=2022-07-07 |website=Healthcare IT News |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |date=February 16, 2003 |title=Human Body Version 2.0 |url=https://www.kurzweilai.net/human-body-version-20 |access-date=2022-07-07 |website=Kurzweilai.et |language=en-US}}

Kurzweil advocates universal basic income (UBI), arguing that progress in science and technology will lead to an abundance of virtually free resources, enabling every citizen to live without the need to work: "We are clearly headed toward a situation where everyone can live very well".{{Cite web |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |date=1 May 2018 |title=Supporting universal basic income is a step in world progress |url=https://www.kurzweilai.net/letter-from-ray-supporting-universal-basic-income-as-step-in-world-progress |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025023302/https://www.kurzweilai.net/letter-from-ray-supporting-universal-basic-income-as-step-in-world-progress |archive-date=25 October 2020 |access-date=12 September 2020 |website=kurzweilai.net |language=en-US}} According to him, the major hurdle to introducing UBI is not its feasibility, but political will, which is slowly emerging.{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Ariel |date=2018-04-14 |title=Google futurist and director of engineering: Basic income will spread worldwide by the 2030s |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/basic-income-worldwide-by-2030s-ray-kurzweil-2018-4 |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}} In a 2018 TED Talk, he predicted that "in the early 2030s, we'll have universal basic income in the developed world, and worldwide by the end of the 2030s. You'll be able to live very well on that. The primary concern will be meaning and purpose."

During a September 17, 2022, interview, Kurzweil explained his worries about technology being used for violence. When asked about nuclear armageddon and the Russo-Ukrainian War, Kurzweil said: "I don't think [nuclear war] is going to happen despite the terrors of that war. It is a possibility but it's unlikely, even with the tensions we've had with the nuclear power plant that's been taken over. It's very tense but I don't actually see a lot of people worrying that's going to happen. I think we'll avoid that. We had two nuclear bombs go off in [1945], so now we're 77 years later... we've never had another one go off through anger... there are other dangers besides nuclear weapons."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykY69lSpDdo&t=2650s Ray Kurzweil Singularity Superintelligence and Immortality On The War in Ukraine Lex Fridman Podcast 321]. September 17, 2022 – 439,132 views. 53:51 to 55:54 Lex Fridmam.

Kurzweil's first book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, presents his ideas about the future. Written from 1986 to 1989, it was published in 1990. Building on Ithiel de Sola Pool's "Technologies of Freedom" (1983), Kurzweil claims to have forecast the dissolution of the Soviet Union due to new technologies such as cellular phones and fax machines disempowering authoritarian governments by removing state control of the flow of information.{{cite book |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |title=The Age of Intelligent Machines |year=1990 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-262-11121-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofintelligent00kurz/page/446 446] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ageofintelligent00kurz/page/446 }} In the book, Kurzweil also extrapolates trends in improving computer chess software performance, predicting that computers will beat the best human players "by the year 2000".{{cite book |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |title=The Age of Intelligent Machines |year=1990 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-262-11121-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofintelligent00kurz/page/133 133] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ageofintelligent00kurz/page/133 }} In May 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a well-publicized match.{{cite news |last=Weber |first=Bruce |title=Swift and Slashing, Computer Topples Kasparov |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/12/nyregion/swift-and-slashing-computer-topples-kasparov.html |access-date=2013-02-13 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 12, 1997}}

Kurzweil foresaw the explosive growth in worldwide Internet use that began in the 1990s. When The Age of Intelligent Machines was published, there were only 2.6 million Internet users in the world,{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_2001_Feb/ai_70910777/pg_3 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629012339/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_2001_Feb/ai_70910777/pg_3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 29, 2012 |title=Fleeing the dot.com era: decline in Internet usage |access-date=September 15, 2014 }} and the medium was unreliable, difficult to use, and deficient in content. He also said that the Internet would explode not only in the number of users but in content, eventually granting users access "to international networks of libraries, data bases, and information services". Additionally, Kurzweil claims to have correctly foreseen that the preferred mode of Internet access would be through wireless systems, and estimated that this development would become practical for widespread use in the early 21st century. In October 2010, Kurzweil released his report "How My Predictions Are Faring" in PDF format,{{Cite web |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |date=October 2010 |title=How My Predictions Are Faring |url=https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/images/How-My-Predictions-Are-Faring.pdf}} analyzing the predictions he made in his books The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and The Singularity is Near. Of the 147 predictions, Kurzweil claimed that 115 were "entirely correct", 12 were "essentially correct", 17 were "partially correct", and three were "wrong". Combining the "entirely" and "essentially" correct, Kurzweil's claimed accuracy rate comes to 86%.

In Newsweek magazine, Daniel Lyons criticized Kurzweil for some of his incorrect predictions for 2009, such as that the economy would continue to boom, that a U.S. company would have a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, that a supercomputer would achieve 20 petaflops, that speech recognition would be in widespread use, and that cars would drive themselves using sensors installed in highways.{{cite web |last=Lyons |first=Daniel |date=May 2009 |title=Ray Kurzweil Wants to Be a Robot |url=https://www.newsweek.com/ray-kurzweil-wants-be-robot-80265 |access-date=2009-05-22 |work=Newsweek}} To the charge that a 20-petaflop supercomputer had not been produced, Kurzweil responded that he considered Google a giant supercomputer, and that it was indeed capable of 20 petaflops.

Forbes magazine claimed that Kurzweil's predictions for 2009 were mostly inaccurate, with seven incorrect, four partially correct, and one correct. For example, Kurzweil predicted, "The majority of text is created using continuous speech recognition", which was not the case.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/03/20/ray-kurzweils-predictions-for-2009-were-mostly-inaccurate/ |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |title=Ray Kurzweil's Predictions For 2009 Were Mostly Inaccurate |year=2012 |magazine=Forbes |access-date=2016-01-05}}

In 1999, Kurzweil published a second book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, which explains his futurist ideas in more depth. In it, he says that with radical life extension will come radical life enhancement. He says he is confident that within 10 years{{When|reason=10 years from 1999 (2009) or 10 years since the redaction of the article?|date=February 2025}} we will have the option to spend some of our time in 3D virtual environments that appear just as real as reality, but that they will not yet be able to directly interact with our nervous system. He expounds on his prediction about nanorobotics, claiming that within 20 years millions of blood-cell sized devices, called nanobots, will fight disease inside our bodies and improve our memory and cognitive abilities. Kurzweil also believes a machine will pass the Turing test by 2029. He says that humans will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological intelligence that becomes increasingly dominated by its non-biological component.{{Cite web |last=Eugenios |first=Jillian |date=June 3, 2015 |title=Ray Kurzweil: Humans will be hybrids by 2030 |url=https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/technology/ray-kurzweil-predictions/index.html |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=CNNMoney}} In Transcendent Man, he writes, "We humans are going to start linking with each other and become a metaconnection; we will all be connected and omnipresent, plugged into a global network that is connected to billions of people and filled with data."

In 2008, Kurzweil said in an expert panel in the National Academy of Engineering that solar power will scale up to produce all of humanity's energy needs in 20 years. According to him, we need to capture only 1 part in 10,000 of the energy from the Sun that hits Earth's surface to meet all of humanity's energy needs.{{cite web |url=http://www.livescience.com/environment/080219-kurzweil-solar.html |title=Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say |publisher=LiveScience |date=February 19, 2008 |access-date=2011-03-27}}

Kurzweil was called "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes in 1998{{Cite web |last=Pfeiffer |first=Eric W. |date=April 6, 1998 |title=Start Up |url=https://www.forbes.com/asap/1998/0406/017_print.html |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=Forbes}} and a "restless genius" by The Wall Street Journal in 1989.{{cite news |last=Bulkeley |first=William |date=June 23, 1989 |title=Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |page=A3A}}"Among the leaders is Kurzweil, a closely held company run by Raymond Kurzweil, a restless 41-year-old genius who developed both optical character recognition and speech synthesis to make a machine that reads aloud to the blind." PBS included him as one of 16 "revolutionaries who made America", along with other inventors of the past two centuries.{{cite web |title=Who Made America? |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/innovators_hi.html |access-date=February 9, 2013 |publisher=PBS}} Inc. magazine ranked Kurzweil eighth among the "most fascinating" entrepreneurs in the U.S. and called him "Edison's rightful heir".{{cite magazine |title=26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs |url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050401/26-index.html |magazine=Inc. |access-date=February 9, 2013}} Bill Gates called him "the best at predicting the future of artificial intelligence".{{Cite web |date=July 8, 2005 |title=CNN.com – Gates: Get ready for chip implants – Jul 4, 2005 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/07/04/gates.implants.ap/ |access-date=2022-09-01 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050708012222/http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/07/04/gates.implants.ap/ |archive-date=July 8, 2005 |url-status=dead}}

Although technological singularity is a popular concept in science fiction, authors such as Neal Stephenson{{cite web |url=http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217 |title=Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor |date=October 20, 2004 |access-date=2008-08-28 |last=Miller |first=Robin |publisher=Slashdot |quote=My thoughts are more in line with those of Jaron Lanier, who points out that while hardware might be getting faster all the time, software is shit (I am paraphrasing his argument). And without software to do something useful with all that hardware, the hardware's nothing more than a really complicated space heater.}} and Bruce Sterling have voiced skepticism about its real-world plausibility. Sterling expressed his view in a 2004 talk at the Long Now Foundation called The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole.{{cite web |url=http://blog.longnow.org/2004/06/14/bruce-sterling-the-singularity-your-future-as-a-black-hole/ |title=Bruce Sterling – "The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole" |date=June 14, 2004 |access-date=2009-06-08 |last=Brand |first=Stewart |publisher=The Long Now Foundation}}{{cite web|url=http://media.longnow.org/seminars/salt-0200406-sterling/salt-0200406-sterling.mp3 |title=The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Sterling |format=MP3 |quote=It's an end-of-history notion, and like most end-of-history notions, it is showing its age. |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004120035/http://media.longnow.org/seminars/salt-0200406-sterling/salt-0200406-sterling.mp3 |archive-date=2008-10-04 }} Other prominent AI thinkers and computer scientists who have criticized Kurzweil's projections include Daniel Dennett,{{cite web |url=https://www.edge.org/conversation/jaron_lanier-one-half-a-manifesto |title=The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto |last=Dennett |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Dennett |publisher=Edge.org |quote="I'm glad that Lanier entertains the hunch that Dawkins and I (and Hofstadter and others) 'see some flaw in logic that insulates [our] thinking from the eschatalogical implications' drawn by Kurzweil and Moravec. He's right. I, for one, do see such a flaw, and I expect Dawkins and Hofstadter would say the same."}} Rodney Brooks,{{cite web |url=http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks |title=The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto |last=Brooks |first=Rodney |author-link=Rodney Brooks |publisher=Edge.org |quote=I do not at all agree with Moravec and Kurzweil's predictions for an eschatological cataclysm, just in time for their own memories and thoughts and person hood to be preserved before they might otherwise die. |access-date=2016-01-05 |archive-date=2015-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107044838/http://edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks |url-status=dead }} David Gelernter,Transcript of debate over feasibility of near-term AI (moderated by Rodney Brooks): {{cite web |url=http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks |title=Gelernter, Kurzweil debate machine consciousness |publisher=KurzweilAI.net |access-date=2016-01-05 |archive-date=2015-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107044838/http://edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks |url-status=dead }} and Paul Allen.{{Cite web |title=Paul Allen: The Singularity Isn't Near |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2011/10/12/190773/paul-allen-the-singularity-isnt-near/ |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=MIT Technology Review |language=en |quote=Kurzweil's reasoning rests on the Law of Accelerating Returns and its siblings, but these are not physical laws. They are assertions about how past rates of scientific and technical progress can predict the future rate. Therefore, like other attempts to forecast the future from the past, these "laws" will work until they don't.}}

In the December 2010 issue of IEEE Spectrum, John Rennie criticized Kurzweil for several predictions that did not come true by the originally predicted date.{{cite web |first=John |last=Rennie |title=Ray Kurzweil's Slippery Futurism |date=December 2010 |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/ray-kurzweils-slippery-futurism |work=IEEE Spectrum |access-date=2012-08-13}} Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy agrees with Kurzweil's timeline of future progress, but thinks that technologies such as AI, nanotechnology, and advanced biotechnology will create a dystopian world.{{cite news |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html |title=Why the future doesn't need us |access-date=2008-09-21 |last=Joy |first=Bill |date=April 2000 |magazine=Wired |quote=...it was only in the autumn of 1998 that I became anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century. I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil...}} Lotus Development Corporation founder Mitch Kapor has called the notion of a technological singularity "intelligent design for the IQ 140 people... This proposition that we're heading to this point at which everything is going to be just unimaginably different—it's fundamentally, in my view, driven by a religious impulse. And all of the frantic arm-waving can't obscure that fact for me." Cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter has said of Kurzweil's and Hans Moravec's books: "It's an intimate mixture of rubbish and good ideas, and it's very hard to disentangle the two, because these are smart people; they're not stupid."{{cite web |last=Ross |first=Greg |title=An interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter |url=http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122012828/https://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter |archive-date=2014-01-22 |access-date=2008-08-28 |work=American Scientist}} VR pioneer Jaron Lanier has called Kurzweil's ideas "cybernetic totalism" and outlined his view on the culture surrounding Kurzweil's predictions in an essay for the Edge Foundation called "One Half of a Manifesto".{{cite web |date=March 1, 2013 |title=The Singularity: A Documentary by Doug Wolens |url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/olson20130301 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629111738/http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/olson20130301 |archive-date=2014-06-29 |access-date=2013-10-22 |publisher=Ieet.org}}{{cite web |url=http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier/lanier_p1.html |title=One Half of a Manifesto |access-date=2008-08-28 |last=Lanier |first=Jaron |publisher=Edge.org}} Physicist and futurist Theodore Modis claims that Kurzweil's thesis of a technological singularity lacks scientific rigor.{{Cite journal |last=Modis |first=Theodore |date=2006 |title=The Singularity Myth |url=http://www.growth-dynamics.com/articles/Kurzweil_critique.pdf |journal=Technological Forecasting & Social Change|volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=104–112 |doi=10.1016/j.techfore.2005.12.004 }}

• First place in the 1965 International Science Fair for inventing the classical music synthesizing computer
• The 1978 Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. The award is given annually to one "outstanding young computer professional" and is accompanied by a $35,000 prize.{{cite web |url=http://awards.acm.org/hopper/ |title=ACM Awards: Grace Murray Hopper Award |access-date=September 15, 2014}} Kurzweil won it for his invention of the Kurzweil Reading Machine.{{cite web|url=http://awards.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3622009&srt=all&aw=145&ao=GMHOPPER |title=ACM: Fellows Award / Raymond Kurzweil |access-date=September 15, 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419233735/http://awards.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3622009&srt=all&aw=145&ao=GMHOPPER |archive-date=April 19, 2012 }}
• In 1986, Kurzweil was named Honorary chairman for Innovation of the White House Conference on Small Business by President Reagan.
• In 1987, Kurzweil received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.{{Cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-curriculum-vitae |title=Curriculum Vitae | KurzweilAI |access-date=2014-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701122347/http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-curriculum-vitae |archive-date=2014-07-01 |url-status=dead }}
• In 1988, Kurzweil was named Inventor of the Year by MIT and the Boston Museum of Science.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil |title=Ray Kurzweil – KurzweilAI |access-date=September 15, 2014}}
• In 1990, Kurzweil was voted Engineer of the Year by the over one million readers of Design News Magazine and received their third annual Technology Achievement Award.{{cite web| url = http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6451495.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080120134719/http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6451495.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = January 20, 2008| title = Engineer of the Year Hall of Fame, 6/12/2007}}
• The 1995 Dickson Prize in Science
• The 1998 "Inventor of the Year" award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/corporation-0608.html |title=Corporation names new members |date=June 8, 2005 |work=MIT News |access-date=September 15, 2014}}
• The 1999 National Medal of Technology.{{cite web |url=http://www.technology.gov/medal/Recipients.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928061946/http://www.technology.gov/medal/Recipients.htm |archive-date=2007-09-28 |title=Technology Administration. THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY RECIPIENTS. 1985–2006 Recipients |access-date=September 15, 2014}} This is the highest award the President of the United States can bestow upon individuals and groups for pioneering new technologies, and the President dispenses the award at his discretion.{{cite web |url=http://www.technology.gov/medal/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218140046/http://www.technology.gov/medal/ |archive-date=2007-12-18 |title=Technology Administration. THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY. 2007 Events and Activities |access-date=September 15, 2014}} Bill Clinton presented Kurzweil with the National Medal of Technology during a White House ceremony in recognition of Kurzweil's development of computer-based technologies to help people with disabilities.
• In 2000, Kurzweil received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}
• The 2000 Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology.{{cite web|url=http://www.techfestival.org/past-honorees/ |title=Telluride Tech Festival |access-date=September 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017185018/http://www.techfestival.org/past-honorees/ |archive-date=October 17, 2011 }} Two other individuals also received the same honor that year. The award is presented yearly to people who "exemplify the life, times and standard of contribution of Tesla, Westinghouse and Nunn."
• The 2001 Lemelson-MIT Prize for a lifetime of developing technologies to help people with disabilities and to enrich the arts.{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-winners/a-kurzweil.html |title=Winners' Circle: Raymond Kurzweil |access-date=September 15, 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102115911/http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-winners/a-kurzweil.html |archive-date=January 2, 2014 }} Only one is awarded each year – it is given to highly successful, mid-career inventors. A$500,000 award accompanies the prize.{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-prize.html |title=Lemelson-MIT Prize |access-date=September 15, 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220042540/http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-prize.html |archive-date=February 20, 2014 }}
• Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 for inventing the Kurzweil Reading Machine.{{Cite web |date=2025-01-09 |title=NIHF Inductee Raymond Kurzweil and Optical Character Recognition |url=https://www.invent.org/inductees/raymond-kurzweil |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=www.invent.org |language=en}}
• The Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award on April 20, 2009, for lifetime achievement as an inventor and futurist in computer-based technologies{{cite web|url=http://www.clarkefoundation.org/news/042009.php |title=The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation |publisher=Clarkefoundation.org |date=April 20, 2009 |access-date=2011-03-27 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405173824/http://www.clarkefoundation.org/news/042009.php |archive-date=2012-04-05 }}
• In 2011, Kurzweil was named a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.{{cite web|title=Design Futures Council Senior Fellows |url=http://www.di.net/about/senior_fellows/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071106072349/http://www.di.net/about/senior_fellows/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-11-06 |publisher=Di.net }}
• In 2013, Kurzweil was honored as a Silicon Valley Visionary Award winner on June 26 by SVForum.{{cite news |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/06/27/hear-from-2013-visionary-award-winners.html?page=all |title=Visionary Awardees Kurzweil, Warrior, Blank, Diamandis: Hear what they had to say about their achievements}}
• In 2014, Kurzweil was honored with the American Visionary Art Museum's Grand Visionary Award on January 30.{{cite web |url=http://www.avam.org/news-and-events/pdf/press-releases/2013/AVAM-2014%20Gala%20Honorees-12.11.13.pdf |title=Ray Kurzweil to be honored with AVAM's Grand Visionary Award at 2014 Gala Celebration |publisher=Azam.org |access-date=October 26, 2014 |archive-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407100624/http://www.avam.org/news-and-events/pdf/press-releases/2013/AVAM-2014%20Gala%20Honorees-12.11.13.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://events.baltimore.cbslocal.com/baltimore_md/events/avams-2014-gala-celebration-honoring-ray-kurzw-/E0-001-066126729-0 |title=AVAM's 2014 Gala Celebration Honoring Ray Kurzweil at American Visionary Art Museum – CBS Baltimore's Latest Events Events – Baltimore Events « CBS Baltimore |work=Eventful |access-date=September 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026163949/http://events.baltimore.cbslocal.com/baltimore_md/events/avams-2014-gala-celebration-honoring-ray-kurzw-/E0-001-066126729-0 |archive-date=October 26, 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-tour-with-ray-adventure-in-art-and-dance-at-the-american-visionary-art-museum-award-gala-honoring-ray-kurzweil |title=A tour with Ray – Adventure in art and dance at the American Visionary Art Museum award gala honoring Ray Kurzweil – KurzweilAI |access-date=September 15, 2014}}
• In 2014, Kurzweil was inducted as an Eminent Member of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu.
• Kurzweil has received 20 honorary doctorates in science, engineering, music and humane letters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hofstra University and other leading colleges and universities, as well as honors from three U.S. presidents – Clinton, Reagan and Johnson.{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-bio |title=Ray Kurzweil biography |publisher=KurzweilAINetwork |access-date=September 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140205002828/http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-bio |archive-date=February 5, 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://people.forbes.com/profile/raymond-kurzweil/146841 |title=Raymond Kurzweil |work=Forbes |access-date=September 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423192351/http://people.forbes.com/profile/raymond-kurzweil/146841 |archive-date=April 23, 2012 |url-status=dead }}
• Kurzweil has received seven national and international film awards including the CINE Golden Eagle Award and the gold medal for Science Education from the International Film and TV Festival of New York.
• He gave a 2007 keynote speech to the Protestant United Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut, alongside Barack Obama, who was then a presidential candidate.{{cite book | last=Peragine | first=Michael | date=2013 | title=The universal mind: The evolution of machine intelligence and human psychology | publication-place=San Diego | publisher=Xiphias Press | language=en | asin=B00BQ47APM | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvb0DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT111 | quote=He gave a 2007 keynote speech to the Protestant United Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut, alongside Barack Obama, who was then a Presidential candidate.}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.wtvlucc.org/synod.htm|title=First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Waterville, Maine message|access-date=December 21, 2021|archive-date=May 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511153229/http://www.wtvlucc.org/synod.htm|url-status=dead}}
• He was included in Time 100 AI list in 2024.{{Cite magazine |title=The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024 |url=https://time.com/collection/time100-ai-2024/ |access-date=2024-09-25 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}

• The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)
• The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life (1993)
• The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)
• Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (2004 – co-authored with Dr. Terry Grossman)
• The Singularity Is Near (2005)
• Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever (2009 – co-authored with Dr. Terry Grossman)
• How to Create a Mind (2012)
• The Singularity Is Nearer (2024)

• Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine (2019)

{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Ray Kurzweil.ogg|date=November 25, 2011}}

• Paradigm shift
• Simulated reality

{{clear}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{official website}}
• {{C-SPAN|58760}}
• {{IMDb name|0961244|Raymond Kurzweil}}
• [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/ray-kurzweil Ray Kurzweil Interview] at NAMM Oral History Collection (January 20, 2007)
• [https://www.danielleworld.com/ Official Danielle Superheroine website]

{{Clear}}

{{Google LLC}}

{{Hopper winners}}

{{Life extension}}

{{Transhumanism footer}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Books|Business and economics|Film|Internet}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurzweil, Ray}}

Category:1948 births

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:American agnostics

Category:American futurologists

Category:21st-century American inventors

Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent

Category:American science writers

Category:American technology writers

Category:American transhumanists

Category:American artificial intelligence researchers

Category:American philosophers of technology

Category:Cryonicists

Category:1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery

Category:Google employees

Category:Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates

Category:Jewish agnostics

Category:Lemelson–MIT Prize

Category:Life extensionists

Category:Living people

Category:Machine learning researchers

Category:Martin Van Buren High School alumni

Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni

Category:American nanotechnologists

Category:National Medal of Technology recipients

Category:Singularitarians

Category:Writers from Queens, New York

Category:MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni

Category:Syntheism