
The Singularity Is Nearer
When We Merge with AI
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Narrated by:
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Adam Barr
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By:
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Ray Kurzweil
About this listen
The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come
Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public.
In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.
The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with illustrations and graphs from the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Ray Kurzweil (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A fascinating exploration of our future, which raises the most profound philosophical questions.”—Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens
“Few people have shaped how the world thinks about AI like Ray Kurzweil. Now, with The Singularity Is Nearer, he has written an updated, expansive and hopeful guide to a fast-approaching future that will once again set the terms of debate. Grounded in decades of meticulous research, and written with impressive clarity across an immense canvas, it's essential reading for anyone wanting to understand our exponential times.”—Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI
“The acclaimed futurist demonstrates how a revolutionary future is closer than you might think. . . . Kurzweil’s capacity for predictive thinking should not be underestimated. . . . This book brims with ideas about what lies ahead, and Kurzweil presents his vision with clarity and passion.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Story
AI will be the defining development of the 21st century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand-new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order.
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Good concept, poor execution
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-21
By: Kai-Fu Lee, and others
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Nexus
- A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Vidish Athavale
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world.
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Painfully boring
- By 80s Kid on 09-18-24
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Transcend
- 9 Steps to Living Well Forever
- By: Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman MD
- Narrated by: Adam Lofbomm
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Transcend, famed futurist Ray Kurzweil and his coauthor, Terry Grossman, MD, present a cutting-edge, accessible program based on the vanguard in nutrition and science. They've distilled thousands of scientific studies to make the case that new developments in medicine and technology will allow us to radically extend our life expectancies and slow the aging process.
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No supplemental materials means useless
- By Ashish on 08-03-21
By: Ray Kurzweil, and others
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Danielle
- Chronicles of a Superheroine and How You Can Be a Danielle
- By: Ray Kurzweil
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine tells the story of a precocious young girl who uses her intelligence and accelerating technology to solve humanity's grandest challenges. Written as an alternative history, Danielle's journey as a driven young girl brings her face-to-face with many important figures from recent history and our modern world.
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Change can do you good, Kurzweil fans. I LOVED IT!
- By MsJonesn66 on 05-08-19
By: Ray Kurzweil
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Adopting AI
- The People-first Approach
- By: Paul Gibbons, James Healy
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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"Few books so artfully blend the optimism of Kurzweil with the caution of Bostrom with the pragmatism of Mollick." (Linus Caldwell, Alphaverse Capital) In classical Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity before being damned for all eternity. The moral of the story: the gift of scientific progress and technology is a double-edged sword. If the hype is to be believed, humanity is on the cusp of a technological breakthrough of Promethean impact: Artificial Intelligence. Google’s Sundar Pichai claims that the impact of AI will be “more profound than ...
By: Paul Gibbons, and others
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Superintelligence
- Paths, Dangers, Strategies
- By: Nick Bostrom
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.
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Colossus: The Forbin Project is coming
- By Gary on 09-12-14
By: Nick Bostrom
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How AI Will Shape Our Future
- Understand Artificial Intelligence and Stay Ahead. Machine Learning. Generative AI. Robots. Quantum AI. Super Intelligence.
- By: Pedro Uria-Recio
- Narrated by: Will Stauff
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook will help you get ready for the changes coming in the years ahead. Listen now. Packed with expert insights, the book addresses critical questions: How will AI alter employment, education, and global geopolitics? What ethical dilemmas will arise as humans interlace with AI through cyborgs and synthetic biology? Can we prepare for superintelligence and its utopian—or dystopian—outcomes?
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Packed with insightful information
- By Robert M on 10-23-24
By: Pedro Uria-Recio
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The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- By: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
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Required reading for any AI course
- By ehan ferguson on 11-16-20
By: Brian Christian
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AI Superpowers
- China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
- By: Kai-Fu Lee
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.
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Compelled to listen at 2x speed
- By LEE on 09-26-18
By: Kai-Fu Lee
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The AI-Driven Leader
- Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions
- By: Geoff Woods
- Narrated by: Geoff Woods
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The difference between growing your business and going out of business is your ability to think strategically. The problem is, most leaders are stuck in the operational weeds, struggling to find the time to make better strategic decisions. This challenge is only heightened by the rise of AI. While you know AI is the future, current demands leave you with no time to explore its benefits. Meanwhile, your competition is gaining an edge by integrating AI. The time to act is now.
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Incredible!
- By Kaylee Richard on 03-24-25
By: Geoff Woods
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Artificial Intelligence
- A Guide for Thinking Humans
- By: Melanie Mitchell
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Melanie Mitchell, Tony Wolf
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In Artificial Intelligence, Mitchell turns to the most urgent questions concerning AI today: How intelligent - really - are the best AI programs? How do they work? What can they actually do, and when do they fail? How humanlike do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us? Along the way, she introduces the dominant methods of modern AI and machine learning, describing cutting-edge AI programs, their human inventors, and the historical lines of thought that led to recent achievements.
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Start understanding AI right here!
- By Chad M. on 01-26-20
By: Melanie Mitchell
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Genesis
- Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit
- By: Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Craig Mundie
- Narrated by: Niall Ferguson, Byron Wagner
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe, revolutionize fields as diverse as medicine and architecture, and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen.
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Not as good as I expected
- By @CaffeinatedRunner on 11-21-24
By: Henry A. Kissinger, and others
What listeners say about The Singularity Is Nearer
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- Jason A Graham
- 11-21-24
Big ideas and bold optimistic vision
He backs up his insights with lots of data. Worth the listen even though I didn’t love the narration.
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- Jay Burkhart
- 07-03-24
Well, organized relevant. And insightful
With as many books on this topic as this author has written I was concerned that this was going to be just be a copy paste of the previous books. It definitely was not. It was full of new and relevant insights, taking developments since his last book into consideration and expanding deeper than he had before in previous books. I found this book to be very enjoyable and helpful Not just as an informative source, but also in helping refine. An augment. My own ideas on how to stay relevant and the benefit from all the coming changes. This was an overall great book. Well written and extremely relevant.
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- Jonathan Bishop
- 08-06-24
Wow
Ray Kurzweil’s insights continue to blow my mind… but this time I’m finding myself eager for us to “just get there already.” A flame has been lit under my plebeian ass. However, I’m left wondering what people like me can even do—here and now—to facilitate the cultural shift required to integrate AI into the human experience.
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- Paul Beighley
- 07-16-24
Speculative and imaginative.
Redundant and wordy. The narrator was flat and machinelike, almost droning. The overall points with examples did not require this long a book, and references to previous works seemed self promoting.
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- James A Marr
- 08-16-24
A journey into the evolution of our brains
Really unbelievable body of work portraying the revolutionary changes we as a species will be going through in a very short time. Fascinating and thought provoking!
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- Danielv
- 09-17-24
Glad I listened.
As you all know by the time you've read the reviews, AI will be several times more powerful.
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- Daphne M
- 07-30-24
The peril of unregulated international AI is horrifying
Excellent audio book. Highly recommend the author’s honest detailed writing of AI. Very respectful of author’s viewpoints.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Benjamin East
- 06-29-24
An Excellent Follow-up to The 2006 Original
This is an excellent guidebook reinforcing our path forward while making clear what changes have occured. It's great to see a summary of our progress and tie it to how our relatively optimistic future will take hold.
Great book and excellent narration.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pilotry281
- 07-30-24
Makes me eager for the 2045 book. Hopefully written by Ray.
Largely a rehash of its predecessor, but that in itself is a remarkable reminder that the 2005 book proved accurate.
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- Tony Earl
- 11-10-24
A reason to be hopeful
With mean spirited divisions seemingly on the rise, Ray's book is a source of hope and inspiration. I've read all his books and appreciated his update to The Singularity Is Near. His predictions have been uncannily accurate, even though I often didn't believe them to be possible, at least not within his predicted timeframe. Yet year after year, decade after decade his predictions have been accurate. He addresses the dangers in a clear-headed way, but his latest book fills me with much needed optimism.
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