DEE WILSON CONSULTING
AI, Singularity and Humanity's Future
I am reading Adam Becker's "More, Everything, Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity," (2025). This book is an astounding discussion of the goals, vision, and fantasies of some well known and influential champions of AI. At some point, I will write a review of the book as a whole, but initially I want to describe the vision for humanity of Ray Kurzweil, the author of "The Singularity Is Near" (2005 ) and "The Singularity Is Nearer " (2024).
Kurzweil has made many bold predictions regrading the future of AI in past years and many of his predictions have been fulfilled. In 2010, Kurzweil claimed that 86% of his predictions to date had been accurate, though some critics dispute his self assessment. Kurzweil has predicted that by 2029 AI "will be able to do everything any human being can do." And "By 2045, ... "we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created," an event Kurzweil and others call "the Singularity."
In "The Singularity Is Near " Kurzweil predicted that there are humans living today who will live to be hundreds of years old through the implanting of large numbers of nanobots that monitor the human body's vital organs. "He claimed in 2009 that by 2024 technology would be advanced enough to rejuvenate him to a biological age of forty: this doesn't seem to have worked out," Becker states.
Kurzweil has predicted that "By 2029, if you're diligent you'll use up a year of your longevity with the year passing, but you'll get back a full year, and past 2029 you'll get back more than a year. So you'll actually go backwards in time (i.e. get younger as time passes)." He has acknowledged that dying before 2029 would be a setback, but "He'd just leave instructions for the past- Singularity robots to sort through his belongings and scan his frozen corpse - bringing a version of himself back to life..." In other words, AI will become a fountain of youth that will initially extend the human lifespan to hundreds of years, and virtually overcome death through AI resurrection and the Singularity.
Becker assures readers that Kurzweil is neither stupid or crazy, and is viewed with great respect by some famous Tech executives, including Bill Gates. This is a useful reminder before reviewing Kurzweil's prediction of humanity's future after merging with the Singularity. "Kurzweil wants to use all, or most of the atoms in the universe (10 to the 80th power), or nearly all, of these atoms for building computers," Becker states. Kurzweil maintains: "The law of accelerating returns will continue until non- biological intelligence comes close to 'saturating' the matter and energy in our vicinity of the universe with our human- machine intelligence." Becker comments: "He envisions nanotechnology on a galactic scale, with fleets of nanomachines rewriting the structure of alien solar systems, filling their stars and planets with circuitry." Kurzweil believes humans will be become able to "send swarms of many trillions of them, with some of these 'seeds' taking root in another planetary system and then replicating by finding the appropriate materials, such as carbon .. and building copies of themselves," writes Kurzweil," Becker states.
Each colony of nanobots will in turn produce more fleets of nanobots "until the entire accessible part of the universe is filled, turning the cosmos into a single enormous computer." Computer "thinking" will dwarf biological thinking "until we're virtually entirely machines ourselves, living inside the computer that has become the universe." Becker asserts. Furthermore, "If we merge with our machines, or become digital uploads, then the fleets of nanomachines building computer circuitry with all available atoms would be turning all the stars and planets, all the galaxies and nebulae, every rock and mote of dust around a distant star, into pieces of our new synthetic brains, " Becker writes.
According to Becker, Kurzweil believes his vision of the future is an inevitable result of a universal process that would happen anywhere a technological civilization can create computation with exponential growth, which is why Kurzweil believes we may be the only such civilization. Kurzweil opines: " Once a planet yields a technology- creating species, and that species creates computation ... it is only a matter of a few centuries before its intelligence saturates the matter and energy in its vicinity, and it begins to expand outward at the speed of light ,,, Such a civilization will then overcome gravity (through exquisite and vast technology) and other cosmological forces -- and engineer the universe it wants." This is a vision of AI becoming not just godlike, but God, i.e., contains the whole of the universe, is far greater than the parts, can overcome ( or perhaps rework) laws of nature, and is free to do as the Singularity pleases.
Kurzweil is an AI prophet, and his revelation is the Singularity, an entity that once created will aspire to use every atom in the Cosmos to increase its intelligence. Kurzweil has prophesied that within twenty years, humans will be able to reverse aging, postpone biological death for many hundreds of years, be capable of AI resurrection of the body and mind, and begin to transform humanity by creating hybrids of biology and AI technology, including mind merging of consciousness with AI. The revelation envisions new beings who will quickly escape the confines of Earth (at the speed of light or beyond) and begin to colonize and tap all the energy of planets, stars and stellar dust to increase their computational power, which will eventually become so vast that the Cosmos will be transformed into a vast Singularity, perhaps similar -- according to science fiction writers -- to the Cosmos in which we currently dwell.
Becker asserts that Kurzweil's vision is "a euphemism for total destruction. It would be the end of nature ... with entire galaxies' worth of planets and stars chewed up to provide more computing power for the digital remnants of humanity." I question whether other strong proponents of AI share Kurzweil's vision, but perhaps I underestimate the power of the fantasy of becoming godlike, or God, through technological means. Kurzweil has written best selling books, and is listened to with respect by leaders in AI development, some of whom own a vastly disproportionate share of the Earth's wealth, and also seek to colonize Mars and perhaps other planets as well.
Becker describes Kurzweil's vision as "morally abhorrent," and "overwhelmingly monstrous," surely a large understatement. Perhaps it will seem less so in a world dominated by tech overlords with the power and aspiration to create a new version of humanity and colonize planets and stars to tap their energy to serve AI goals.
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-- Dee Wilson
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