Give Yourself to Others …

It took me a couple of months, reading off and on, to get thru this book.  It does not qualify as “light” reading material.

Kurzweil is a very smart dude, especially when it comes to applied technology.  I’ve known about him for some time, because of his work in speech recognition.

However, the premise of this book is his prediction that by 2026, scientists & engineers will develop the technical capability to duplicate the human mind artificially.  He describes how this “project” is developing, and writes extensively about how the human mind works.  He even explores the ethical or moral issues of whether we will view this artificial intelligence as sentient or conscious.

I don’t know Kurzweil’s religious beliefs, if any.  Clearly, he seems to be a true evolutionist, showing no evidence of any belief of God’s participation in the creation of human kind.

To me, his book raises to another level, the question of what is it about human beings that separates us from animals.  Now, I don’t mean this in the obvious ways.  Of course, I believe man has a soul, which is something animals do not have.  But I also acknowledge our brains likely work much the same way the brain of other animals works.  So, what accounts for the difference.  And how is that difference explained?

Now, I’m reading another book:  The Righteous Mind (by Jonathan Haidt).  It has similar implications.

I’m still working on how I can explain both this question and my response.