169 Quotes by Ray Kurzweil

The role of the infinitely small is infinitely large.

I’m working on artificial intelligence. Actually, natural language understanding, which is to get computers to understand the meaning of documents.

One cubic inch of nanotube circuitry, once fully developed, would be up to one hundred million times more powerful than the human brain.9.

Contemporary philosopher Max More describes the goal of humanity as a transcendence to be “achieved through science and technology steered by human values.

Shaped a little like a loaf of French country bread, our brain is a crowded chemistry lab, bustling with nonstop neural conversations. Imagine the brain, that shiny mound of being, that mouse-gray parliament of cells, that dream factory, that petit tyrant inside a ball of bone, that huddle of neurons calling all the plays, that little everywhere, that fickle pleasuredome, that wrinkled wardrobe of selves stuffed into the skull like too many clothes into a gym bag. – Diane Ackerman.

But the big feature of human-level intelligence is not what it does when it works but what it does when it’s stuck. – MARVIN MINSKY.

There are no inherent barriers to our being able to reverse engineer the operating principles of human intelligence and replicate these capabilities in the more powerful computational substrates that will become available in the decades ahead. The human brain is a complex hierarchy of complex systems, but it does not represent a level of complexity beyond what we are already capable of handling.

We appear to be programmed with the idea that there are ‘things’ outside of our self, and some are conscious, and some are not.

This effect occurs relatively quickly, unlike the requirement to build up levels in the bloodstream that accompanies some prescription drugs for depression. It is, therefore, an effective, natural, and quick-acting treatment for mild depression. Human trials have also shown benefits for strengthening the liver and for relief from osteoarthritis.