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BOOK REVIEW: WHEN COMPUTERS EXCEED HUMAN INTELLIGENCE: THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES
As artificial intelligence and intelligent programs are the next logical step in the Held of computing. 1 chose to read the book When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence: The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. This book offers a very philosophical view of where computers have been, where they currently are and where they have the potential to take humankind in the future. Everything that the author addresses in this book is backed up with quite a bit of empirical and theoretical data that helps the arguments that he makes much more believable.
Kurzweil begins his investigation of the future of computing by looking at where the universe began and verifying that intelligence that is created by another entity can in fact exceed the intelligence of the creating entity. The key to this theory is the fact that evolution increases exponentially through time, quickening as time goes on. He argues that evolution was the primary force that created Homo sapiens, and these Homo sapiens have far exceeded the intelligence of the theory behind evolution. This then proves the fact that beings can exceed the intelligence of their makers and, in turn, proves that when a form of artificial intelligence is achieved, that it will have the capability of exceeding the intelligence of its human creators. Not only does Kurzweil believe that il is a possibility that our technology will be able to exceed the intelligence of human beings, but he thinks it is a certainty. The emergence of technology follows a very similar pattern to the development of evolution being that both of them develop at an ever-quickening exponential pace. This means that as time goes on. technology will continue to develop at a more rapid pace until artificial intelligence is realized and even beyond that point, liven though the pace of technology development continues to increase. Kurzweil states that the creator of this technology must require the attributes of intelligence and the physical ability to manipulate the environment.
One of the key principles involved in the development of technology, whether it is in the past, present or future, is that of the technology life cycle. The first stage is the precursor...