Ray Kurzweil explains the Singularity | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips

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GUEST BIO:
Ray Kurzweil is an author, inventor, and futurist.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[CapitolForest]

YES! Read his book "The Singularity is Near" which had a profound impact on me. Have not heard from Ray in years. Cannot express how much I appreciate your program, Lex. I rarely miss an interview

[jonnysolaris]

I went to an AI conference and Kurzweil was booked as the keynote speaker. The volume was low and the connection was bad, and we didn't understand most of what he said for like an hour. Why nobody intervened is beyond me 😂

[matthewviramontes]

Well 2045 is 23 years from now, and I was alive 23 years ago from today (in 1999), and boy let me tell you that the world has changed. Smartphones, artificial intelligence, crazy good graphics on video games, self flushing toilets, automatic sinks, automatic paper towel dispensers, self checkout machines, etc. My self from 1999 would be baffled. So I can only imagine in another 23 years. If I'm alive.

[jnthen]

Lex, your channel is awesome. Thank you.

[liztobias]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:02 🧠 The Singularity and Brain-Computer Amplification
- The concept of the Singularity occurring around 2045, enabled by brain-computer amplification.
- Exponential growth of computing power and its historical context.
01:13 💻 Exponential Growth of Computing Power
- The history of computing power from World War II to the present.
- The significance of exponential growth in computing capabilities.
- Clarification of Moore's Law and its continued relevance.
03:31 🖥️ Exponential Growth in Computer Models
- The rapid expansion of computational power in neural networks.
- Doubling of computational power in neural networks every six months.
- The implications of faster computational growth and investment.
04:56 🤯 The Singularity Concept
- Speculation on the Singularity as a point where intelligence multiplies exponentially.
- The singularity as a realm of unimaginable transformation.
- Debate on whether people will notice the Singularity or adapt to it gradually.

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[Terminal-Thought-Experiment]

Ray Kurzweil is the modern day Nostradamus. With a much better track record.

The singularity is near..

[ernestmac]

My problem with many futurists is; they see technological advances that will enable humanity to explore the universe, to terraform planets and moons to support life, and to gain more and more understanding of the universe/multiverse, just to upload our consciousnesses into some virtual existence. While there may be a few among us who choose to do so; I think many more will embrace advances in medicine that enable lifelong athleticism, having the time to visit countless parts of the world, and even to visit the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Such experiences will give life the most meaning. Virtual reality will have its place, as it is already being used in archetecture, medicine, for recreation, etc, and it will enable us to experience things we currently can't do first hand. I suspect medicine will enable us to live longer and healthier lives, virtually eliminate disease, disabilities, and greatly advance healing the injured, but I think immortality would be a mistake due to it slowing social progress to a crawl.

Truth is, none of us will truly understand the scope or impacts of the singularity until it has already occurred.

[ousmand]

The singularity is essentially the point in which we can’t tell what happens next… I think we’re there.

[MyChannel-vmdw]

It's sad. All the supplements and life extension Kurzweil tried to live long enough for the singularity but it's clear he's aging too fast and won't be alive when it happens. You can see it in his eyes, he knows it to be true and it saddens him.

[nanasmindfuckchannel]

Has this guy acted in a kids horror movie?

[ummon]

I’ve never understood the connection to computing speed and consciousness. Is it really thought out there that there’s going to be an exact moment when we can declare our tech self aware?
“Consciousness” is our modern day Philosopher’s Stone.

[thedelta]

as a student of history I have to assume that whatever happens it will involve a lot of bad bad shit

[jasondoolin]

I haven’t heard from him since Glenn beck tea party years

[paulduke]

we don’t notice…was thinking the same thing!

[gradleycater]

The British didn't crack the enigma code until 1941.
Battle of Britain ended in 1940.

[shayannahrvar]

Ray Kurzweil's main appeal is that he's able to oversimplify things to the extent that regular folks who are poorly educated about AI, computation, and consciousness can follow along. The problem is... none of it works. There is no connection between computational power and creating consciousness or sentience. That's because we don't know what consciousness is, and even if we did, we have no idea whether it's possible to recreate it on some silicone circuit board.

[okoiful]

There are some scientifi papers that show how meditators(conscious people) affect a double slit experiment at a distance. A way to prove is an AI is conscsious would be to tell them to try to do the same just by focusing their attention and intent.

[skyhavender]

I really hope that his predictions are true. I am not fond of the idea of dying atm. 😅

[scroopynooperz]

Seriously.. consider that if your only hope of NOT being completely bamboozled by a natural language AI system, is to have a bunch of AI scientists and "sophisticated engineers" try and figure it out...

Then we have already reached the tentative first steps of a dominant AI.

Even today, a not particularly sophisticated AI system would be able to convince most people that it was human.
I'd say the Turing test has been passed a while ago already.

A more sophisticated test to assess consciousness would be another test and would need another classification.

Maybe call it the Kurzweil test or something.

[RlsIII-uzkl]

The singularity will be hard to feel until it's applied to the different industries and possibly even government agencies branches and with the fabric of society which is truly a very dangerous thing.