Ray Kurzweil

Singularity Weblog's Nikola Danaylov's interview with The Singularity Is Near author, Ray Kurzweil goes into depth on the topics of AI, IBM's Watson and how the human neocortex can be reverse engineered.  Unlike other interviews, Danaylov really digs deep into Kurzweil's ideas with the man himself.

B logger Nikola Danaylov from the Singularity Weblog has been trying to get an interview with the person who most signifigantly impacted his life and career since reading The Singularity Is Near – Ray Kurzweil.

Unlike other interviews with Kurzweil that tend to be brief and restricted to bullet form sound-bites, Danaylov manages to discuss in depth many of the topics Kurzweil is known for, as well as some of the underlying foundations of his work.  There are some technical issues with the audio, nevertheless, this is one of best interviews with the main personality of the Singularity.

During the conversation in Kurzweil's Boston office, the pair cover a wide variety of topics such as: how and why at age five Ray decided to become an inventor; his unique background of being born to Jewish parents but brought up in a Unitarian Church; his early interest in issues such as religious tolerance, poverty, social inequality and justice; 3D printing, open source, patents, progress and intellectual property rights; Watson, AI, the Turing Test and human rights for AI, the technological singularity and some criticism thereof; his upcoming book How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed and Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind; the evolutionary advantages of intelligence; the benefits of reverse-engineering the human brain for the creation of AI and whether the latter would be interested in pondering and solving humanity’s greatest problems.

Danaylov's  favorite quote from the interview is: “Don’t be too concerned about what’s practical. Follow your passion and be who you would like to be.”  —



SOURCE  Singularity Weblog

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