THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO KURZWEIL: Techno-Gods or Digital Utopia?

Ray Kurzweil. Photo by Gregg Segal / fortune.com

Thanks to the rapid development of technology, we are now on the verge of creating a hybrid of humans and artificial intelligence. In his new book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses the benefits of such a fusion.

However, many scientists see his utopia as a pseudo-religion disguised as technoscience. It promises unprecedented progress at the cost of extinction. The latest round of discussion on singularity has taken place in the pages of Nature magazine. Here, we present the key points from that debate.

A DIGITAL ESCAPE FROM THE BIOLOGICAL PRISON

ay Kurzweil is an American computer scientist and futurist who is widely regarded as a prophet of transhumanism, a movement advocating radical technological intervention in human Nature to enhance our cognitive abilities and transcend human biology.

His new book follows The Singularity Is Near, first published in 2005. Kurzweil predicts the arrival of a «post-human» era in which human intelligence will merge with artificial intelligence. To describe this process, he borrows the term «singularity» from black hole physics.

Kurzweil uses this metaphor to signify the anticipated threshold in technological development, beyond which computational power will achieve unimaginable capabilities. This symbiosis with humans will bring about changes on a cosmic scale, requiring a redefinition of what it means to be human.

THE ANTICIPATION OF THE DIGITAL «SUPERHUMAN»

In his new book, Kurzweil revisits his earlier predictions, maintaining that achieving technological singularity is both inevitable and desirable for humanity. His forecasts are primarily based on the exponential growth in the number of computations that can be performed per second for 1 dollar.

He traces this trend back to 1939. The futurist expects that the Turing test will be passed by 2030 — meaning computers will be able to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of humans. Beyond that, they will reach «superhuman capabilities» across a wide range of fields.

TECHNO-UTOPIA OF «COMPUTRONIUM»

Kurzweil’s techno-utopian worldview envisions humanity’s future by simply following the trajectory of information technology development. By the end of this decade, Kurzweil asserts, most clothing and other common goods will be 3D-printed, and brain-computer interfaces will be able to transmit simulated sensory data directly to the human nervous system. In the long term, the human-AI hybrid will unlock the ability to transform ordinary matter in the universe into «computronium» — a programmable substrate for ultra-efficient computations.

THE «DISGUSTING» SINGULARITY

Kurzweil’s predictions are met with mixed reactions in the scientific community. Renowned philosophers, physicists, and tech experts have often criticized him. Perhaps the harshest critique came from Nassim Taleb, who called the singularity theories «deeply disgusting».

Spanish theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Alex Gomez-Marin from the Institute of Neurosciences in Alicante also weighed in on Kurzweil’s ideas. In an article published in Nature, he argued that Kurzweil «juggles» the possibilities of neuroscience revealed by large language models, constantly confusing computations with intelligence and consciousness.

«He flirts with materialism, dualism, and panpsychism, claiming that consciousness is “similar to a fundamental force of the Universe”. The words “complexity” and “emergence” appear far too often in contexts where any sort of mumbo jumbo could just as easily be used», comments Gómez-Marín on Kurzweil’s new book.

THE ERA OF DIGITAL CLONES

In his view, Kurzweil promotes a technology capable of replacing every bit of the brain with a digital copy. However, he overlooks the role of quantum processes, which are born from uncertainty. Perhaps this is because «non-computational mechanisms» contradict his paradigm.

Kurzweil predicts that nanobots will enter human brains, copy their personalities and memories, and store all of this in the «cloud». But who says that the computer copy will be you? As a functionalist, Kurzweil values «doing» more than «being».

In his understanding, if a chatbot behaves like a human, then it is human. Unfortunately, a copy, while functionally able to replace the original, is still not the original. Reality is not a simulacrum, and consciousness is not a computer function.

A PRAYER FOR LONGEVITY

The Spanish scientist points out that Kurzweil’s technological fetishism extends beyond the «cloud». In his worldview, something akin to a «digital soul» can inhabit anybody with purely mechanical functions.

Gomez-Marin refers to this as a litany of science fiction (litany, from the Greek λιτή: prayer, request). Kurzweil «prays» for a revolution to be brought about by the convergence of AI and nanoengineering.

This will allow us to redesign and rebuild our bodies, brains, and the worlds we interact with. By around 2030, we will rapidly break through the natural and divine boundaries of longevity.

SEX WITH AN AVATAR: «SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE MACHINE WORLD»

The neuroscientist from Alicante believes that Kurzweil’s attitude toward death is the key to understanding his ideas. He dreams of resurrecting his father in the form of a virtual avatar. To achieve this, Kurzweil has been gathering everything ever written or said by him in digital form.

The next step is that you could bequeath a virtual copy of your personality along with a copy of your physical body. Then, your robotic avatar could continue interacting with loved ones — even to the point of sexual relations.

As far back as 1964, media theorist Marshall McLuhan remarked in his book Understanding Media that humanity is destined to become the «sexual organs of the machine world». If Kurzweil is correct and the singularity is near, then sex with your resurrected counterfeit lover may not be far behind.

EDITED REALITY AND A SURROGATE GOD

Gomez-Marin identifies Kurzweil’s existential vulnerability as stemming from his disillusionment and even disgust with Mother Nature and her limitations. Kurzweil laments that he cannot learn faster, remember better, or reprogram his fears, traumas, and doubts.

The singularity is supposed to free us from all of this. Kurzweil believes we can treat reality like text on a screen — copy life, delete death, and edit ourselves, freeing us from biological weaknesses.

«The Gospel According to Kurzweil» is a doctrine of liberation from the flesh and a promise of post-human immortality. Even the book’s title echoes the New Testament: «The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand» (Matthew 4:17).

In the words of British philosopher John Gray, this is «the continuation of monotheism by other means», a surrogate for God expressed through the rhetoric of scientific progress.

TECHNOLOGICAL IDOLATRY

Unfortunately, any utopia inevitably encounters dystopia along the way. Thus, Kurzweil cannot avoid mentioning the threats that technology poses to humanity — nuclear weapons, bioengineering, and AI.

However, Kurzweil’s technological idolatry leads him to a consistently optimistic cost-benefit analysis: the problems humanity created will be solved by the very things that caused them!

Gomez-Marin finds this unacceptable: first unquestioningly embracing technological changes and only then crafting social contracts to manage them. Progress may give us non-stick frying pans, but it can just as easily make our lives miserable.

NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO «MERGE» VOLUNTARILY

Overall, Gomez-Marin, like many of Kurzweil’s other critics, doesn’t outright reject the motto «merge with AI voluntarily» since this fusion seems inevitable. He merely points out that such techno-utopian pseudo-religions can quickly spiral out of control, no matter how much Kurzweil reassures us otherwise.

«Kurzweil’s understanding of humanity and Nature is so strangely incomplete that his prophecy is more of a curse than a blessing. And his spiritual quest is devoid of spirit», concludes the Spanish neuroscientist.

The concept of «singularity» offers us reflections on superhuman existence. But behind its façade lies something uniquely human.

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