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Ray Kurzweil 2001-2003 essays Available as a PDF
prostoalex writes "The Ray Kurzweil Reader is a collection of essays by Ray Kurzweil on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, radical life extension, conscious machines, the promise and peril of technology, and other aspects of our future world. These essays, all published on KurzweilAI.net from 2001 to 2003, are now available as a PDF document for convenient downloading and offline reading. The 30 essays, organized in seven memes (such as "How to Build a Brain"), cover subjects ranging from a review of Matrix Reloaded to "The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine" and "Human Body Version 2.0.""
Futurists, I have to say, are total and utter wankers.
This is counter-groupthink here on slashdot, but technology is neutral, it is how you use it that counts.
But people love to lap up the idea that technology somehow *does* something. Just witness the collective ho-ha over the PS3 and Xbox2 specs: was anyone asking "will there be an opensource game engine? will we be able to run linux? what type of DRM?"
Some where. And those are the *important* questions.
"Futurists" are frauds, everything they do is opposed to proper philosophical practice. They are totally opposed to philosophers who consider new technology as it comes along like for example, bio-ethics. They are just cheerleaders of tech and their position within a capitalistic system is suspect, as is their position when many of them are consultants to companies for advertising purposes etc.
You have to ask, what romantic vision of technology these guys have, where did it come from. Why are they saying what they are saying.
Give me the comments of the neutral university professor of philosophy in the employ of the public (albeit indirectly) ANY day of the week over the opinion of a shady futurist pimping their shiny covered books and consulting with corporations for the cult of consumption.