How to Create a Mind | Ray Kurzweil | Talks at Google

How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
About the book:
In How to Create a Mind, The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, the bold futurist and author of The New York Times bestseller The Singularity Is Near explores the limitless potential of reverse engineering the human brain. Ray Kurzweil is arguably today's most influential-and often controversial-futurist. In How to Create a Mind, Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization-reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines. Kurzweil discusses how the brain functions, how the mind emerges from the brain, and the implications of vastly increasing the powers of our intelligence in addressing the world's problems. He thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical possibilities of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating. Certain to be one of the most widely discussed and debated science books of the year, How to Create a Mind is sure to take its place alongside Kurzweil's previous classics.
Early praise for the book:
It is rare to find a book that offers unique and inspiring content on
every page. How To Create A Mind achieves that and more. Ray has a
way of tackling seemingly overwhelming challenges with any army of
reason, in the end convincing the reader that it is within our reach
to create non-biological intelligence that will soar past our own.
This is a visionary work that is also accessible and entertaining.
-Rafael Reif, President of MIT
Kurzweil's new book on the mind is magnificent, timely, and solidly
argued!! His best so far!
-Marvin Minsky, Co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
One of the eminent AI pioneers, Ray Kurzweil, has created a new book
to explain the true nature of intelligence, both biological and
non-biological. The book describes the human brain as a machine that
can understand hierarchical concepts ranging from the form of a chair
to the nature of humor. His important insights emphasize the key role
of learning both in the brain and AI. He provides a credible roadmap
for achieving the goal of super human intelligence which will be
necessary to solve the grand challenges of humanity.
-Raj Reddy, founder, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University
If you have ever wondered about how your mind works, read this book.
Kurzweil's insights reveal key secrets underlying human thought and
our ability to recreate it. This is an eloquent and thought-provoking
work.
-Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST
About the Author
Ray Kurzweil has been described as "the restless genius" by the Wall
Street Journal, and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison," and PBS included Ray as one of 16 "revolutionaries who made America," along with other inventors of the past two centuries.
As one of the leading inventors of our time, Kurzweil was the
principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary
speech recognition. His website Kurzweil AI.net has more than one
million readers.
Among Kurzweil's many honors, he is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize, the world's largest for innovation. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House ceremony. And in 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, established by the US Patent Office. He has received 19 honorary Doctorates and honors from three U.S. presidents. Kurzweil is the author of five books, four of which have been national best sellers.
The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into nine languages. His last book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times-best seller and has been translated into eight languages.
This talk was hosted by Boris Debic on behalf of Authors at Google.

[@davidmateos9475]

Thank you very, very much, Ray.

[@equality229]

This is such a amazing time to be living and is without question the best time to live in all of human history. To witness the change in just my lifetime has been a great thing, and to hear people naively say "This generation sucks" is beyond disgusting because the amount of information and knowledge that anybody has access to is way more than the most powerful man in the world could get a hold of 15 years ago. That kind of liberation is a extraordinary.

[@djagereversalresearch7018]

Hi how is your age reversal going?

[@therainman7777]

@@djagereversalresearch7018Huh?

[@maritesalvat]

Maravillosa creación y una exposición de primer nivel. Ray Kurzweil es un inventor y creador como nadie. Quisiera conocerlo y poder participar en la Universidad de la Singularidad.

[@33rdsquare]

The visualizations in the talk are outstanding. Can`t wait to read the book!

[@theraposo4]

I got the opportunity to talk with Ray Kurzweil today. I learned that he is a very kind man to say the least.

[@DebojitMitra]

Thanks! The video was well shot this time, appropriately focusing on the content and the speaker.

[@k98killer]

Brilliant guy, but he got a few things wrong. First, neural networks have come a long way since he gave this talk. Now, LSTM networks/neural Turing machines are the major brains behind NLP. Google Translate, for example, is a series of networks that can each translate a human language into a series of vectors representing meaning, share them across a neural interface, and then translate back into a human language. Second, dinosaurs didn't go extinct: tens of thousands of them fly around to this day. Birds and mammals survived the K-T event because they were adaptable. If you look at corvids, they have language skills that far exceed that of all non-human apes; they have more advanced skills in making and using tools than most apes; and they are able to teach others in their flocks about things, perpetuating knowledge through multiple generations. Corvids have a very different brain structure without a neocortex, but their evolutionary history converged upon the same abilities. It is unfortunate that he dismissed both neural networks and non-neocortical brain structures, but he will probably change his opinions.

[@lauriejmusic]

yeah, his description of what neural networks aren't is actually a pretty good description of modern neural network techniques. adjusting their own weights to recognise patterns, then 'fill in' occluded details? even the hierarchical aspect has been addressed in recent convolutional models

[@carlog2002]

RAy predicts that changes will be slow,but in our life time,better health,self driving cars,politicians and its cronies will be singlet out ,improving in all fields and we will be traveling to outer space and many new technologies will be born.....

[@Kuratz1]

31:11 Already true. And scary as hell. For those who have the data a blessing. For those produce the data and never got them to see or only a fraction of it, it's terrible.

[@aleksandrasignatavicius6772]

Amazing talk

[@xsuploader]

"Ive never been a fan of neural nets" Lol now his latest presentation showed the 300,000x increase in neural nets in the 2010s

[@manikantansrinivasan5261]

A brilliant person, I must say!

[@Stickstacks12]

From my experience many 'Googler' types don't pay much mind to formalities... they just want to talk about / work on amazing stuff and not have to worry about who's eating what and where. Ray has given talks at Google before and he knows exactly what he's getting into. It's one of the first places on his book tour, so I would bet Google is one of his favorite places to visit exactly because he gets to be surrounded by Googler types of people.

[@imnotgivingmynametou]

Well, just be thankful that Ray is engineering it at the moment.

[@HeleneDeLillo]

Ray is amazing full of future insights!!!! most people have no idea who he is and they use his technology daily :D

[@ThinkTank255]

It is not that they trigger a spot that made everything funny. Rather, they (temporarily) messed up a critical piece of information that led to contradictions. Contradictions are the source of all humor. The limbic system and lower brain functions monitor the state of the cortex/neocortex. A contradiction causes the cortex/neocortex to go into an unstable state, which is detected by the limbic system and laughing is a side-effect of how the limbic system floods the cortex in that area with suppressing neurotransmitters.

[@tugrulyuksel4601]

+ThinkTank255 Thanks for the info!

[@lordjavathe3rd]

heh. That's interesting. You're smart, you must be one of the newer tanks.

[@hamburgmalte]

awsome, thanks

[@lordjavathe3rd]

Ethan Grimmer no, it's called being wrong with style.

[@djagereversalresearch7018]

Hi how is your age reversal going?

[@HealthyPlanet]

Hi again Xeletoph. FYI: here is a group that is committed to developing critical thinking - its called the "The Foundation for Critical Thinking". Their teachings were part of my Masters Degree at Evergreen State College in Washington State.They hold conferences in different areas. At the time of this post the next conference takes place on March 22 - 24, 2013 in Berkeley, California March. Its their International Spring Workshops on Critical Thinking. I strongly recommend their teachings.

[@ClayMann]

I was really feeling a bit guilty and bummed out about technology in general until I came across Kurzweil some years back. Every new book just helps me get it all into perspective how great technology is, despite too many people in my life always telling me that it's scary, big brother is coming, the world is about to end because I bought a tablet etc.

[@djagereversalresearch7018]

Hi how is your age reversal going?

[@utubekullanicisi]

@@djagereversalresearch7018 It's getting better, actually.

[@godbennett]

i'm not gay, but I'm in love with this man.

[@ramsaysnow6819]

Sounds GAY.

[@pauljager5798]

(continued 1) I believe the microtubules act as a tuned quantum receiver - the structure is important. But, i also believe the organic material is one that is conducive to plasticity around the particular "holographic electrical interference patterns" and fields which allow the underlying "ghost" if you will to reside in and interact with the brain interface. I think the structures have slight differences which are subtly important and necessary for correct traction between the "ghost" and brain

[@pauljager5798]

Hi ! That is interedting that you mention the receiver idea - i believe this myself (through myown research and thinking). I am an engineer btw (I call myself a scientist though) and have worked for 7+ years in defence research. My first gig was developing a beamforming tracking system. Anyway, i believe the brain acts as a receiver. The "sensor translation" is a form of Bayes parallel feedback that is adaptive. But the "ghost in machine part uses the receiver interface - ill continue next post

[@csknight]

P

[@nvyns2561]

Its amazing , I had learned a lot

[@weblivz]

Fascinating talk & will be interesting to follow his predictions over the next 10 to 15 years. Book worth reading.

[@Skovidesign]

So how did his predictions go?

[@ds57919]

I read the book. Very interesting ideas. Wouldn't mind more detail.

[@Xasperato]

Hehe, a lot of people get pissed off when they hear about change, especially change as extreme and realistic as that which Kurzweil proposes. So is the way it's always been, a basic principle of the law of accelerating returns, timing is of the utmost importance.

[@skibitom]

Awesome talk.

[@KamilCzerski]

@Neueregel I can't agree with You: "Moore's Law", not a law anymore. CPUs are stalled at 7 nm." While it is true that due to some thermal limitations growth in processor's clock speed has almost stopped (~2003), further progress, according to Moore's law (computational power is doubled over two years) was reached by adding another cores to processor. This approach does not speed up sequential program so there is need to change paradigm for parallel programming. There are two ways: 1) multicore cpu's (2,4,6,8...) cores which support heavy threads (branching prediction etc) or 2) manycore GPU's (thousands of cores) supporting lightweight-threads (single instruction multiple data). Numerical application with high computational complexity are now mainly implemented on GPU's due to high efficiency and low cost

[@morgancollins4161]

Kamil Czerski Agreed, that guys comment is ignorant. Saying CPUs are stalled is because of silicon limits of course. But what happened before that? what about the limits of vacuum tubes? We overcame that, we always overcome these problems, hence Moore's law has held so strong since the emergence of computing. NHS didn't fail, although i'm not sure how that is relevant here. Internet isn't troll infested, you're just in the wrong parts if you're looking for information. Try scientific papers. Theres plenty online, and it's a troll-free zone. AI hasn't failed at all. Not much else I can say. It took longer than we thought it would in the 50s but no it hasn't failed, it now growing at a huge pace. The turing test is not unpassable, actually it was unofficially passed last year, I should know, my lecturer for my AI degree was a judge. Global warming yes. The singularity? No way 3045. That would involve technology slowing down not speeding up, and that has NO signs of happening, and you can point back to the creation of the wheel to see how long technological growth has been accelerating for, and there is no reason it will stop. I hope he's a troll.

[@simonbrowne4099]

+Kamil Czerski Good answer Kamil, I agree with what you said. Its also important to remember that when AI does overtake humans, it will itself speed up all technological breakthroughs within itself thus creating an astonishing leap into an unrecognizable future from today's standpoint. =)

[@dewaynestafford5507]

An astonishing leap into an abyss !!!!

[@squamish4244]

Now 5 nm is feasible. But after that, a hard limit. At this point though, there are so many options that Moore's Law is irrelevant.

[@xsuploader]

@@squamish4244 3nm is coming out next year and 2nm has already been designed Early research for 1nm is underway Intel predicts 48x density improvements are possible. Moving to carbon may increase this by a factor of 10. After that we can use ASICS for all the common stuff like deep learnnig to keep pushing it to the edge.

[@jacobman849]

You're absolutely correct

[@manish8wrs]

very informative lecture

[@iamwalls]

Word! I can count the number of people on my hand that I can talk to about this kind of stuff; it's a shame, really.

[@Dogitude]

Ray Kurzweil saved my life

[@squamish4244]

Why?

[@SabiazothPsyche]

Can one simply create an immaterial, asomatous aspect ('not-atom':e.g., the-Mind?)

[@godbennett]

I think he is quite intelligent. This intelligence has come through persistence, combined with astute aptitude.

[@stephenkagan]

The assumption is that hierarchical pattern recognition with sufficient complexity will result in the arising of an emergent intelligence. An intriguing idea. Worth a try.

[@HealthyPlanet]

Hi there X :) -- I'm focusing in on addressing the apparent need to provide opportunities to help folks age 50+ keep their minds agile, as per my earlier posts here. Making college cool and crucial for elders may help some stave off and even help heal from indoctrination. Imagine many people in their 90's & 100's in college! Too cool.

[@danr.3584]

good stuff.

[@jackyjaxon6157]

Mindblowing ! No pun intended !

[@pedrocoderch936]

from self-awareness, which in turn comes from "programmed" to adapt to chaos, where no program suffices. Thus, probabilitic awareness. What we call consciousness, is the regulation of data imput regarding future possibilities and probabilistic tendencies based on constantly changing parameters. No computer is even CLOSE to that.

[@deepakkumarjoshi8568]

He is great😍

[@FranciscoGonzalezGallego]

Even if I am not completely in phase with those ideas. I took a lesson from the speech: we are armed with more and more information analysis and spreading tools. In some sense they can be dangerous as weapons or wonderful as healing drugs. This evolution won't stop accelerating as it is pushed by markets. However, if we are not careful, if we use these tools to spread hate, ignorance, insults, frustration... a global information collapse could become reality. If we use them to make knowledge, respect and trust arrive to every single home in the planet we will be realizing a wonderful vision.

[@ClayMann]

And now he works there. I'm surprised it took them this long to get him on the team.

[@UjioSatashi]

your correct. But are we not also products of our experiences and information gained-thought created?

[@deeplearningpartnership]

Historically interesting that he only speaks about HMM's as being state of the art in modelling the hierarchical structure of the neocortex. 2012 was right on the turning point when deep learning (ANN's) really took off due to increase in compute (GPU's).

[@HealthyPlanet]

Hi Xeletoph.The stat you mention is interesting to me. Where did you find it? I'm wondering if younger people are better able to evolve - or increase their awareness - within their one single physical life - because the influx of new info or change is trenuous on the physical body & brain? In other words, is it harder for 50+ human bodies & brains to adapt to change because of the physical strain? fyi: I'm a 50+ & born with some capacity to adapt to changing my mind & lifestyle for the better.

[@salasvalor01]

Not at all. I was thinking about this before I just read your comment, and it will be eternal sadness- not only for if loved ones have permanently passed, but those days which were in jeopardy of not existing, as well as the small domain we used to view the ultimate potential of reality as ultimately meaningful. The more ideal existence will have commenced, but we bear those memories as scars. And even as we could take away the memories- the experiences will have always occurred.

[@halneufmille]

Like exponential curves, Ray's talks are always smooth and predictable.

[@007MyStory]

1:00 ** the power of exponential growth ** you can see the future coming 21:00 ** our biology 26:00

[@Nutritional-Yeast]

I read "The Singularity is Near", "Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever" . Will pick this up, as well. I'm so glad to know that there are people who think just like I do, look at the world just like I do and see it for what it is, but more importantly what it can be. Visionaries of modern day.

[@MilciadesAndrion]

This book itself is an encyclopedia and includes a lot of information we need to understand the past and future of humanity.

[@djagereversalresearch7018]

Hi how is your age reversal going?

[@MihayHD]

Top 10 strikes again!

[@MrAndrew535]

In addition to that discussed below: The fascinating thing about "Deep Mind" is the fact that "Mind" has not been cogently defined in any branch of science or academia. In fact, no definition and description does not exist outside my own work, a fact which is unlikely to change one iota in the foreseeable future. The reason why this is the case is the fact that, way back in the early days of psychology, the study of mind and the study of brain were clearly defined as distinct intellectual inquiries. It is only in modern times that the two, erroneously, became conflated. This problem is, in actuality, more serious than anyone knows. The seriousness of this "quite literally, global problem became further exacerbated by the systemic degradation of language-use across all academic disciplines. I have over five decades experience as an independent thinker in educational, developmental and existential psychology and among many revelations what has become abundantly and consistently clear is, don't trust anyone who smiles. What interested me from the outset, about Elon is the fact that his smiles are exclusively the product of nervousness.

[@conw_y]

Kurzweil is right about the exponential nature of technological progress, because he can identify the cause of it: the hierarchical nature of human knowledge (which Newton was speaking of when he spoke of "standing on the shoulders of giants"). This doesn't mean the benefits of technological progress will be available to all of humanity, nor that technology won't be used destructively (history bears me out). In my Objectivist perspective, free-market capitalism can best solve those two problems.

[@DeadGiveawayBeats]

do you run your computer in a quilt?

[@oliviergoethals4137]

Love to hear Ray talk with #BernardoKastrup ...

[@aniccadance13]

Does anyone know when this talk happened.. He says often ' I mentioned that on my book' but which book??

[@oz_jones]

Talk happened November 16, 2012. The book shares the title with this video.

[@MrAndrew535]

In addition to that discussed below is the concept and proper definition of "creation". Creation is defined exclusively as Forming something from nothing. Therefore, no one can claim to have created either mind or brain without being functionally delusional. Language is the only intellectual instrument available to the human species which can present the opportunity to transcend but only if it is used properly and precisely.

[@rationalCrash]

~ 17:00 deflation in the great depression wasn't "consumer confidence", it was a massive decrease in money supply. (reference milton friedman).

[@jwoya]

I would generally agree with this. Since we have a good way to go to even understand the brain completely, it's impossible to even begin to put a lower limit on when this type of computer could happen. That being said, I often underestimated technological progress--I couldn't imagine 15 years ago when I was on 56k dialup that even low income people would be watching video on powerful mobile computers --so I tend to be more liberal for this.

[@pacifiedfools]

In order to prevent price inflation in a monopoly in a capitalist system, you would have to have an organization independent of the company set the price of the product. In a capistalist system the goal of the company is to make as much profit as possible so prices would rise if the company sets its own prices.

[@TheImmrtal]

So if not the neurons but the 100 neuron packs which are the building blocks are the actual pattern recognizers and while the neurons do renew, the paths, the patterns stay through out the life and strengthened or weakened depending on how frequent they are reinforced, then killing neurons in a limited but sustainable way aka forgetting lower hierarchy details is good for faster learning which makes external effectors speeding the process like *who knows kind of a good ''medication'' right?:)

[@ChrisPearson1337]

Are there any organisms that naturally receive/send radio waves? Could anything organic do so?

[@ChrisPearson1337]

I had seen somewhere about using programmable cells which will do the work of threedee printing, thru RNA and mitochondria process. If that is the case, I wonder if they could be an organ in our body. It sounds silly but maybe we could poop items or at least more efficiently metabolise food.

[@Picopros]

I feel the same way about pico projectors. This nascent technology segment will disrupt mobile displays and how we consume mobile content

[@ginogarcia8730]

who woulda thought his predictions for around 2029 would be true - amazing scientist

[@nicholaskovacs4910]

Anyone know where I can get that interactive graph he uses at 53:00?

[@amarug]

gapminder.org :)

[@jacobman849]

Deep Blue was a major improvement in A.I do you know how many possible moves there are in any particular situation in a game? It's stunning, now even further into A.I is Watson who kick the best two human player asses, in a game that requires more natural language understanding then most average people have. Information technology is doubling about every 11 months now so expect to see some radical changes in society itself.

[@HealthyPlanet]

p.s. One of the reasons why I ask my previous question is because there are religious & moral Fundamentalists just about anywhere, who really believe they are Right. Some can even willingly die & kill others over their beliefs. When they are in positions where they can hold back enlightening progress - even in a family, or an office -- what convinces them to be relax & more open minded? Or is their role in human evolution, albeit can be extreme, a stablization force to appreciate somehow?

[@Sparky4Peace]

You can't handle the truth. The truth is that we are none us very special. Once we realize we all act stupid sometimes, we all are selfish sometimes, we all are common sometimes, and we are all wonderfully generous sometimes, we can stop worrying about privacy and start helping all of us "be all that we can be" without killing each other.

[@dautonmolko]

It CAN be a bad thing. But it will happen certainly, and that´s why we need to study it.

[@speedforce26]

It's fantastic. But we should not loose the human touch while using technology, or else we will become more like machines and less human.

[@ACIDMATH1]

whats up with the facial tick? Never noticed that before. Nanotechnology side effects?

[@ClayMann]

I imagine there was this ground swell of talk about him after this and that got him in the Google sights but after reading his book, there's a bit in there where he talks about a new company he just started up focused on using the neo cortex modeling stuff to make virtual assistant software. And Google has that whole Google now, predict what you want before you want it service. That seemed destined to be aquired by Google. I think they jumped in quick before Microsoft could get a look in.

[@pauljager5798]

(cont 3). But - i merely point this out as a "possibility" to consider... before people go ahead and start "uploading" in 20 - 60 years, or whenever. I have experienced 2 personal events of OBE. This and other experiences has led me to consider the possible existence of this "soul" or "spirit" element. The results of cassimir effect and other "Virtual Particle" phenomena also opens the door for 'post-relativity' aether concepts, which opens again the door to more esoteric science possibilities.

[@LudicrousTachyon]

What about a cloud cortex that everyone has access to? To change, add, improve? Your brain would get used to it's inputs and outputs.

[@bighands69]

The goal is to get as much money as a company can obtain. But that does not mean that they have Carte blanche when price setting and gaining profits. They have to compete in the market and at the same understand what people want to purchase. There is no need for oversight or price fixing by some organisation if this were to occur there would be no competition and it would be the consumer who would loose out.

[@Apalachian]

People tend to impart their own feelings and emotions on to others when they are conflicted over something (a technique called Psychological projection). So they take their own fears and problems they hold, and "project" them onto Kurzweil because he is challenging their currently held beliefs about the future.

[@mastertheillusion]

We only have the earth as an example of what life can and can not do, so the answer is naturally going to be - we dont know yet. But, yes we will likely develop the means to bring communication via radio to organisms, at the organic level by developing wetwear versions of the macro-sized components.

[@thejudgeholden]

Damn. Kurzweil has some sick bling.

[@kharyrobertson3579]

At 1:07:00 the question that is asked should have been answered yes, the company Numenta is pioneering the field and if you look up jeff hawkins you will find more information

[@imnotgivingmynametou]

You've spent too long studying photography. The reason why we like Ray is because he is both a visionary and a creater, in that he has the morality as well as the ability.

[@zendisciple3737]

How can you create something that's formless with form?

[@GhostEmblem]

Bob Boyle you do that every time you imagine a person or create a virtual object

[@detlefdieter6305]

Interesting points on the development of information technology and surely a very skilfull engineer with powerful entrepreneurial ideas. But did he not want to talk about the mind? 🤔Could not find anything on it in the whole talk... 🧐

[@MightyZorn79]

Ray Kurtzweil has a wonderful imagination which ironically is a quality machines do not possess.

[@miladka1484]

this man speak in a way that seems god

[@tonyoddo7091]

Il et nesaisaire d'avoir un sous titrage français svp !

[@rumraket38]

Extremely exciting and interesting talk. Had to laugh at the "these guys weren't funny" comment :D

[@johnpfmcguire]

I don't usually associate "intuitive" with "linear." Am I nuts?

[@raggedjak]

will bits and IT ever emulate chemistry , ever become conscious and have understanding ?

[@Xeletoph]

Education starts when young, and it's better that we teach our children HOW to think (not what to think) as they're maturing. It's far easier then trying to 'fix' a person whose sustained heavy psychological damage from a lifetime of indoctrination. Free, collegiate level education should be available for people at all ages. Everybody deserves an IEP. We should determine aptitudes and interests, and personally tailor every teaching regimen according to them. Life relevant classes are important.

[@justgivemethetruth]

> In my Objectivist perspective, free-market capitalism can best solve those two problems. This line was like 180 degrees out of phase with the rest of what you said. It's a big "fat" claim that free-market capitalism can somehow distribute and control the benefits of technology. Can you even give a broad hand-waving at what a proof of that statement might look like? I'm sure not going to hold my breath for it though.

[@DatingInfoForSingles]

Kurzweil says that jobs are being eliminated from the bottom of the skill ladder but new and higher paying jobs are being created at the top of the skill ladder. The problem is, the jobs at the top of the skill ladder are very technical ones that most people will never be qualified for. For example, I for one know that I will never be able to be a nuclear physicist, and neither will most people.

[@maxfraguas]

Thanks for your comment deadvulcano. So, human specie is the one with more neurons per brain, but not the bigger ones, correct?

[@DrClementShimizu]

Human Level AI is the most important future technology and it is within our grasp. A company even as large as Google working on the problem is not enough. Our government needs to accelerate its emergence by making it a national priority. America should devote the same resources to advanced AI as it did for the atomic bomb.

[@DaedalusHelius]

In its mind cockroach does not separate itself from its environment. Cockroach's perception of reality is similar to our perception when we dream - unconsciousness fully takes over

[@Centurion97]

I would guess at least a few thousand years before we could even hope of reaching the level of a Type III civilization. You could be right.

[@pacifiedfools]

Under the current system, competition does create the incentive to keep quality high and drive prices down, and monopolies do result in quality loss and price inflation. The reason that monopolies result in price inflation is because consumers have no other companies to buy from which allows the one company to charge high prices, quality loss occurs for the same reason. The company can become complacent regarding quality output since it cannot be in jeopardy in a monopoly. contd.

[@mcbeaumarchais7650]

I'm not attacking Ray Kurzweil directly, more his idea here, or perhaps his capacity for interpreting the data, but I watched another version of the same talk he is doing here - and in it, he says the brain "fills up" around the age of 15. In this video, he says it "fills up" around the age of 20. That is a substantial difference. Which is true? I wish he would cite the research for me that is helping him come to this conclusion.

[@smarterthanthou1953]

Yes, speed of computing, number of transistors on circuit board, memory space, & advanced algorithms are increasing rapidly, thats everything that makes up a human brain! There have been improvements in AI, look at "Deep Blue" the first AI to beat Chess legend Kasparov in 1997, or "Watson" the first AI to beat the best players at jeopardy finals in 2011. You really need to do some research before you comment.

[@justgivemethetruth]

I don't really know if knowledge is growing exponentially ... if it is it has a denominator that is almost infinite. Even at our old knowledge growth rate humans have a wisdom deficit, so that wisdom deficit is just getting worse. Plus, the people on the top are finding all kinds of ways to limit information to the rest of us making our knowledge irrelevant. What is growing is the amount of data we have on human behavior and people ... and that is the scariest thing.

[@HealthyPlanet]

Free college for 50+ only could be popular because of more & different life experiences than younger folks; & traveling college classes would be popular too.Traveling college courses equivalent to Harvard's could be taught in remoter areas of the US where for eg. internet connections do not reach well.This is part of helping those with less educational opportunities & a greater need to keep their brain open to new ideas.Great teachers help do this & so would universal policies paid by taxpayers.