I enjoy reading Kurzweil because he's an adventurous thinker. This book is particularly fun because some other fine minds take him to task. Ray holds up well because he's a reasonable thinker. Although some of his predicitions seem outlandish, they may not be. You can't read this book without engaging in a lot of interesting visualization about the future. Some of it is frightening, but there is hope as well. Will the future runaway on it's own or will we be in charge? I don't know, but I'm sure thinking about it, now.

This is Ray Kurzweil's third book concerning the future of reductionist artificial intelligence design and it's possible effects on us in the decades yet to come. In THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES, Kurzweil's previous book, which I enjoyed also, and this volume, he uses technological trends, including Moore's law and other tools, to show that a desktop computer will have achieved human level computational ability around the year 2020. Also, Kurzweil envisions that we will be able, sometime in the next few decades, to scan human brains and download that 'software' into these advanced computers to give them human level reasoning abilities, with the speed of computer neural nets, leaving humans behind, so to speak. Accordingly, it may also be possible to scan individual brains and load that information into an advanced computer (attached to a body of some kind), giving that person a sort of immortality. This is the gist of Kurzweil's argument, I hope I got it essentially correct.

What Kuzweil means by computers someday becoming 'spiritual' is that they may become conscious, and 'strong A.I.' is the view that "any computational process sufficiently capable of altering or organizing itself can produce consciousness." The first part of this book is an introduction to all of the above views by Kurzweil, followed by criticisms by four authors, followed in turn by Kurzweil as he refutes these criticisms.

Personally, I found most of the views expounded by the critics here to be either non-sensical, or 'beside the point'. One critic says that the life support functions of the brain cannot be separated from it's information processing function. Of course it can be, even the effects of hormones can be programmed into a downloaded brain, as well as other chemicals used by brains. Another critic states that possibly evolution is in error, and yet another criticism is that our machines will not be able to contact a divine entity and would thus be inferior.... give me a break, well...perhaps this is all true and maybe pigs will one day fly over the moon unassisted. I could go on and on, but this is the job of Ray Kurzweil and he defends himself admirably in the final chapters of this volume. Kurzweil does mention in this book that brain scanning machines are improving their resolution with each new generation, and eventually will reach a point where they should be able to image individual neurons and synapses in large areas, and allow the brain 'software' to be transferred to a suitable non-biological computing medium, my only criticism of Kurzweil here is that I think he should discuss this technology more, and where it is headed, his next book would be a great place for this.

One final point, it seems to me that when a new idea appears to be difficult and complicated to achieve, the pessimist says: "This is difficult and complicated, and may not work", whereas the optimist says: "This is difficult and complicated, but may work". Only time will tell for sure.

The work, inventions, and opinions of Ray Kurzweil in the field of artificial intelligence have captured media attention and the attention of philosophers and researchers in artificial intelligence. But not only is Kurzweil one of the most brilliant and controversial of all the individuals working in artificial intelligence, he is also the most optimistic. This optimism holds not only for the future technology of artificial intelligence, predicted by Kurzweil to give independent thinking machines in the next three decades, but also for its social impact. Kurzweil believes that artificial intelligence will work for the benefit of humankind, but that this benefit will depend to a great degree on his belief that humans will take on technology that will effectively make them cybernetic.

The controversy behind Kurzweil stems from his recent book "The Age of Spirtual Machines", which is a detailed accounting of his predictions and beliefs regarding artificial intelligence. Many individuals objected to his visions and predictions, and he answers a few of them in this book. In particular, he attempts to counter the arguments against him by the philosopher John Searle, the molecular biologist Michael Denton, the philosopher William A. Dembski, and zoologist Thomas Ray. With only a few minor exceptions, Kurzweil is successful in his refutation of their assertions.

But even if Kurzweil completely refutes the arguments of these individuals, and possibly many more against him, the countering of arguments will not by itself solve the problems in artificial intelligence research. The fact remains that much work still needs to be done before we are priveleged to see the rise of intelligent machines. Kurzweil is well-aware of this, for he acknowledges this many times in this book. He points to reverse engineering of the human brain as one of the most promising strategies to bring in the robotic presence. The success or failure of this strategy will take the mind-body problem out of purely academic circles and bring it to the forefront of practical research in artificial intelligence. The 21st century will thus see the rise of the "industrial philosopher", who works in the laboratory beside the programmers, cognitive scientists, robot engineers, and neurologists.

Each reader of this book will of course have their own opinions on Kurzweil's degree of success in countering the arguments of Searle, Denton, Dembski, and Ray. But one thing is very clear: Kurzweil is no arm-chair philosopher engaging in purely academic debates on the mind-body problem. He is right in the thick of the research and development of artificial intelligence, and if the future turns out as he predicts, he will certainly be one of the individuals contributing to it. He and many others currently working in artificial intelligence are responsible for major advances in this field in just the last few years. Their ingenuity and discipline is admirable in a field that has experienced a roller coaster ride of confidence and disappointment in the preceding decades. All of these individuals have proved themselves to be superb thinking machines.

In this monumental work, George Gilder looks at single men in the America of 1974. He looks at the biology that makes men what they are, looks at the effects of singleness on men, the effects of single men on society, the effects of the sexual revolution on society, and finally at love.

When I saw that this book was written in 1974, I almost dismissed it out of hand as out-of-date and irrelevant. How wrong I was. Though written so long ago, Gilder credibly makes a fascinating argument about the nature of men and the role they play. I found myself quite moved by this book, and provided with a good deal of food for thought. Though you may not agree with what Mr. Gilder has written here, it is very much worth reading. I recommend this book most highly.

From page 121: "And as in Victorian England, when suppression of sex led to an epidemic of perversity-all kinds of lurid flowers in the secret gardens of society, so the denial of male affirmation in modern life leads to pervasive distortions and perversions of healthy masculine aggression-to violence and [the erotic], to fear and exploitation of women, to the quest for potency through drugs and alcohol, to punch-drunk music, and to fighting at sports events." This could have been written yesterday, and yet Mr. Gilder foresaw it 27 year ago.

"The most important event in the recent history of ideas is the demise of the socialist dream," begins Gilder's masterful moral defense of supply-side economics. No one makes the case for capitalism as compellingly as Gilder, because he refuses to apologize for entrepreneurs.

Why don't those left-wing-extremists realise their paternal holier-than-thou attitudes are what really are responsible for anyone remaining in poverty. They that actually do "care", owe it to those they profess to care about to find out whether or not their cherished nostrums do anything more than make themselves feel better. Those that see the light become conservative. It's that simple. It's that complex. Enjoy the book!

During the Reagan Revolution this modest, simply stated summary became the "little red book" for those who ascribe to the approach to economics that the fountain of progress, on all fronts, resides in the principal that money is best left in the hands of the entrepreneur, the individual citizen, who will ferret out opportunity in the most obscure and untapped parts of the economy; as opposed to those who ascribe to the Keynesian approach of taxation and redistribution of wealth. Unfortunately, the tag, supply side, was given to Gilder's insight. In reality Gilder describes a demand side approach to economics in which the individual becomes the bird dog, finding and investing in the new and often unknown demands that society needs to advance, as opposed to the demand stimulus coming from the unimaginative, and atavistic bureaucrats of the central government.

This book which most of us, who read books like this, read 20 years ago should be reread again today. The prescience and accuracy of its viewpoints are worth prolonged cogitation for members on either side of the aisle. Perhaps it could be recommended reading along with the cliff notes of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations"? Okay, at least for Graduate students in the social sciences?

Gilder points out that we have been misled by popular economics as it relates to how we increase wealth and curtail poverty. He then introduces the concept of Supply-Side Economics to the general reader. He fulminates about how misguided policy has undermined the true source of wealth that is to be found in such nonmaterial forces as creativity, technological adventure, and the motivation to strike out for new territory in economic enterprise. He talks about how the blunting of incentives and the efforts to redistribute the wealth, in a just fashion, only serve to keep the poor in poverty. He contrasts this with his description of the true capitalist as one who invests energy and money today for a return he may or may not receive in the future. Is this not the model for describing the difference between children and adults? Is it not a model for delayed gratification one which most of the world eschews? They instead opt for a metaphorical traffic jam at the waterhole of natural resources with the alpha chimp and his cohorts ripping off the biggest piece.

When Gilder talks about the LEFT getting it exactly backwards it reminds me of what Balint Vazsonyi writes about in his book "America's 30 Years War: Who's winning?" He says, "contrary to the prevailing (classic Marxist-Leninist) thinking that economic conditions provide the foundations and everything else is "superstructure", the truth is the other way around. Our spectacular economic success is the result of a unique legal-moral foundation upon which a successful political system has been built".

To show how deep the roots of misguided economic thinking go consider that even Christianity is built on a communistic notion of sharing, and an abhorrence for profit that is seemingly earned on the backs of the laborers. This results in men of the cloth, all to often economically illiterate ones, preaching the wrong formulae to the poor. Basically, "you're poor because they're rich". This Liberation theology is echoed in Marx's backward reading of human nature and the economic consequences of risk and reward. Gilder sets us straight.

Amazing isn't it? We still have academics teaching this LEFT-wing nonsense in respected universities across America while their acolytes storm the barriers in Seattle, Washington, Genoa, etc; all in an attempt to wipe out a system that has brought greater wealth to more people than any other in human history, something even Marx himself acknowledged.

Too me, it's about a pursuit of power and money at the top that is coupled with a reliance that those further down the pyramid of man will continue to engage in blocking and denial. Thus the proles can act as enablers of the "Priests" of the LEFT, those who commit the worst sorts of human crimes (see "the Black Book of Communism"), their zeal inversely proportionate to the laws of unintended consequence which they continue to violate with reckless abandon.

Perhaps a futuristic pill will be uncovered that will allay the LEFT's fevered assessment of mankind's ills and grant them the ability to reason while providing them with much needed relief from their pervasive envy. Read this book along with Myron Magnet's "the Dream and the Nightmare" to get a feel for the intellectual firmament of the Bush II administration, and pray for another cable network.

Gilder wanted to title this book "Sam Beau" but the editors, he said, wouldn't let him. It is doubtful to me that Gilder has any genuine interest in the welfare of the nation's underclass, but he does have a strange fascination with delinquency and depravity. Gilder is attracted by Sam as some derelict version of genuine masculinity, and takes delight in enumerating all of his failures and pinning the blame on the well-intentioned liberals who put him there. More specifically, welfare reverses the relation between men and women: the woman, as the welfare breadwinner, supports the man, who lives off her income and becomes dependent on the "welfare queens," moving from one to other when they turn him out, impregnating each so that they will remain tied to him, and avoiding work so that his wages won't be garnished. For the liberals, he is a father so far as he earns money, and for the woman and her children he is a father only in the biological sense. For the unemployed father watching tv in the afternoon, masculinity can seem restricted to nonconjugal sex (perhaps there is another word for that) and set-to's on the street or in the bar. Again, this fascinates Gilder (or else he wouldn't have written such a quickly forgotten book), and perhaps part of the attraction is being a white man interloping in a largely black world.

Though the book is non-fiction, it at time reads like a quirky novel, with memorable charactors like Buddy the overweight lesbian.

Now that the nation's welfare system is in its final years, its interesting to see the effects of New York State's extreamly generous welfare benefits had on a low-income neighborhood and its residents in the first few years, which is the background of the story, which concerns a black man falsly accused of raping a white woman.

The books is very well-written and engrossing. I read it in only two sittings.