The Influential Ideas of Ray Kurzweil

Last Wednesday, the MIT Enterprise Forum hosted a talk by Ray Kurzweil that I was lucky enough to be able to attend (although, to my credit, it took a little cleverness to get into the talk).

In his talk, Ray discussed his theories and beliefs regarding the exponential increase in the power and price performance of technology.  The key point is that information technologies–such as computer processor speeds and the cost of DNA sequencing–don’t develop linearly, which is unintuitive and unnatural to the human brain when thinking about the future.

Ray and his ideas are very controversial, and he has many harsh critics.  However, nothing of value goes without criticisms and resistance.  Big ideas challenge people’s models of the world.

I had heard Ray talk about his theories several times before, although not in-person.  One thing that struck me was a sense of pragmatism characteristic of an entrepreneur that had solved real problems.  He was not someone who had sat in an ivory tower up in the clouds creating naive notions. He was also not defensive or dismissive of his critics opinions.  I’ve read descriptions that have claimed quite the opposite, even to go so far as to say that “Kurzweil has no sense of objective reality.”

The sense of pragmatism was perhaps better able to come across in this specific talk because Ray also spoke about more common issues such as building a team for a venture.

Ray’s combination of pragmatism, experience, and big ideas make him influential to me personally.   One quote from Ray that I’ll share, “You don’t want to start designing the solution when you have the problem. You want to have the solution ready when you have the problem.”

I’ve posted two links to videos that share more about Ray and his ideas.  Not all of Ray’s ideas are rooted in Data.  Some are more beliefs.  However, beliefs undoubtedly have their place in world, and Ray’s are among some of the most profoundly influential of our day.

TED Talk by Ray Kurzweil (~8 min)
The Singularity of Ray Kurzweil (~20 min)

Kevin
10.20.2009