Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York: Penguin Group, 2005).  Hardback, 652 pages.  Grade level 10-12.

Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines (New York: Penguin Putnam Books, 1999).  Grade level 10-12.

Ray Kurzweil, The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life. 

If you met a 58 year old man who said that he would be living for ever and wore a T-shirt with the words “The Singularity is Near” you would probably think that he was a lunatic.  However, if you knew that he developed a college placement program (as a student), an electronic keyboard instrument bearing his name, speech recognition software now in use in computer programs, and will soon be marketing a language translation program for cell phones you might then consider that he was brilliant.  This best selling author commands the attention of futurists, technocrats, and software developers (such as Bill Gates) throughout the world.  Ray Kurzweil is as close to a secular prophet as you will find.

In The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil admits contradiction within his philosophical and religious views (p. 61).  He states that his belief is a Unitarian synthesis, that is, that there are “many paths to the truth.” In reality, however, he holds to a view of spirituality that is quite impoverished. The title The Age of Spiritual Machines is misleading because it implies that spirituality would be discussed throughout the text.  In all, however, there are less than 10 pages in the book that address any spiritual issue. Kurzweil is a materialist who believes that spirituality is a function of biological processes in the brain.  He equates spiritual machines with machines that can reason on a higher level, feel things, and therefore have moral ideas.

Moral issues, that of right and wrong, rarely appear in his books. Computer viruses are bad and anti-viruses are good, but little beyond that is to be found in his books. He appears to define good and evil in terms of benefit to a utopian society not a moral position based upon revealed laws from God.

In The Singularity is Near Kurzweil claims that within 30 years or so we will have developed life sustaining technology (nanotechnology in particular) that will allow humans to prolong their physical bodies for centuries. Decades later he thinks the technology will be available that will allow us to download our brain matrix to a digital medium. Kurzweil is currently using his body as an experiment to prolong life by taking handfuls of pills a day and two injections a week. He claims his 58 year old body has the biological age of a 38 year old as a result of his work with Dr. Grossman. Kurzweil's book The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life further details his work and research with a Dr. Grossman. 

Later in the future Lurzweil claims that we will no longer need our physical bodies because it will be possible to download our brain matrix into a digital repository—a computer. At this time we will be connected with one another in unforeseen ways.  This will usher in the singularity, a time at which human and machine intelligence expands and fills the universe. 

Many of the developments detailed in his books are accurate.  We are gaining tremendous technological capabilities and he has indeed described incredible advances in medical and computer technology. However, his utopian solution is not found in the end- time readings presented in the Bible. Kurzweil's future is a materialistic view of utopia.

Christians realize that a singularity is indeed coming, but this singularity a time in which all will be brought into unity in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10).  This singularity will not be based on the finite abilities of mankind and technology, but on the infinite abilities of God.  It will not be material in nature, rather spiritual. 

Comments by Terry Ewell (March 2006)