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The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
By Ray Kurzweil. Viking Press; 1999; 388 pp., $25.95. Reviewed by Lyle Feisel
We all know-more or less-what has happened to computing in the past 20 or 30 years. Now, how about the next 20 or 30? Or 50 or 100? While this is a very big question, Ray Kurzweil takes it on with gusto and confidence. And well he might. The predictions in his 1990 book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, have largely come true, so why not take a crack at the next century?
If you were to read the penultimate chapter of The Age of Spiritual Machines first, you might conclude that you were reading a work of science fiction. Most of the conditions described seem, shall we say, a bit on the wild side. If, however, you start at the beginning and follow the predicted evolution of computing throughout the next century, the technological leaps seem more plausible.