The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil is one of our best thinkers about artificial intelligence. The Age of Spiritual Machines, while 20 years old, presents Kurzweil’s prescience for today’s conditions and offers a great overview of the beginnings, the rationale and the evolution of artificial intelligence; and the next steps in its progress. Planners thinking long range about quality of life issues acknowledge the presence of artificial intelligence in the first decades of the 21st century. Sensors, algorithms and the conversion of people to data is here today; and more is on the way.