The Singularity Is Nearer cover art

The Singularity Is Nearer

When We Merge with AI

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Singularity Is Nearer

Written by: Ray Kurzweil
Narrated by: Adam Barr
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.22

Buy Now for $26.22

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 Audio Biological Sciences Computer Science Science Social Sciences Technology Artificial Intelligence Robotics

What the critics say

“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)
All stars
Most relevant  
An optimistic view of the future. But one with deep, yet undiscussed, existential concerns about what it means to be human.

What if you or your loved one became 1,000 times smarter. Would you still connect with them and love them? What would you become?

Kurzweil is not concerned. I am but will march forward with progress.

A thought provoking introduction to a potential near future of mankind

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I think it depends on what level you are at in understanding the convergence of the digital world and nature world and how the principles of both are symbiotic.

The correlation between the natural world and the digital world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Too much fluff. Lots of assumptions and little to back it up. Just uses common sense to make his case, which most of us can see for ourselves already.

First 2 hours were good. Then the rest was very dull with generic filler. Still a very interesting subject.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just that. If even 20% of what he says is true, the future will be unimaginable. Worth listening to—especially if you disagree with what he’s saying.

Incomparable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mostly Democratic Party talking points, like repeating incessantly that the garbage Covid vaccine was “safe and effective “.

Annoying

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you want to know what tech may be coming down the pipeline, but without any social, political, or philosophical considerations of what this technology may mean for humanity, then you'll probably like this book. if you have any empathy, or concerns about the well being of other human beings, then this book will probably frighten the s*** out of you! Mr. Kurtswell is almost delusionally optimistic in thinking that AI and nano-scale biomedical technology will unanimously benefit humanity and not become yet another resource hoarded by the elites. I would have liked more speculation on how we can ensure that this technology benefits everyone and not just the few.

A technocrat's dream; a humanist's nightmare.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not impressed. First book was good but this one wasn’t worth the credit.
Used as an opportunity to express his political views.

Meh

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall, the book is full of data collected very carefully and strategically by corporations and the author himself in his professional capacity. I didn’t find any hard evidence of artificial intelligence systems and the ability to improve humanity. There’s no doubt that the AI community is well on its way to mechanizing life as we know it on this planet. The problem is that humanity is still operating at a barbarian state, the only difference is that we have better technology to more readily destroy masses or billions of people in one given shot. There is no discussion in this book about the fact that implanting wires in the brain and artificial intelligence into the biological stream is going to save our planet from environmental disaster. All the monies and intelligence spent on trying to find a way out of the mess we have created is circumventing the real issue of which is the evolution of Humanity. And I repeat the evolution of Humanity. Implementing something that will retard our evolutionary capability as natural biological beings is then suggesting that a very small number of human beings privy to certain powers, (which the foundation of it is given to them by the billions of Human beings on this planet through hard labor, taxes, and suppression) are a long way off to what they believe they will achieve. Humanity is only just at a critical stage in its evolution. We are barely out of the water and it will be impossible to cancel this through machines. There are certain forces at play, i.e. quantum mechanics and the plasma universe that is vital to our evolution and understanding. Before we begin to mechanize our abilities to progress as a species, I would suggest that the world‘s top philosophers and thinkers, beyond the creators of, these AI tools, discuss how we can use strategies to disarm the military, dissolve the military, cease suppression and repression of the masses and dawn a new age of enlightenment and evolution of Humanity. It has been said that the matrix is a documentary. And the creators and thinkers that want to see a machine world are nothing more than supplanting this matrix through a program into world subconscious. It will not happen as there are many that will revolt and not let this happen. Although I am not a religious person, it strikes me as being very strange that there should be something written in the book of revolution about the mark of the beast. Generally those with any intelligence would know that the beast is Man .

Obliteration of Humanity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent read, Ray is on top of his game.
Narration is unbearable over long period of time

Great book, poorly narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.