Review of the Age of Spiritual Machines and Artificial Intelligence

The first chapters of The Age of Spiritual Machines provide the foundation for Ray Kurzweil to issue his predictions later in the book. They include many theorems of physics and mathematics so it is possible to miss the essential principles later in the book without reading them. Nevertheless, his choice of words delineates some difficult concepts, making this tough but rewarding reading. The first chapter ultimately leads up to the most important principle of the book, The Law of Accelerating Returns, which is that an evolutionary process is not a closed system.…