Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Kurzweil is a Singularity Snake-oil Salesman. This book is so poorly written its almost unreadable, and extremely boring and repetitive. Its just a massive collection of junk he has written over many years, slapped together by some editors. I don't understand why so many people even consider Kurzweil as being a valid thinker. To me he is beyond the pale. Since when does human consciousness correlate with computation? Says who? Again in this book, Kurzweil spouts off about him taking 250 supplements a day, and how he gets several intravenous treatments of vitamins, etc, each week. Ray is proud of his extreme health neurosis and Quackery! His partner in business, Grossman, and Kurzweil run a health business selling supplements to narcissistic Boomers who are afraid of growing old. Its a pure rip-off. Kurzweil claims he is "reprogramming his biochemistry" by taking 250 supplements a day. That is completely meaningless, and there is no scientific evidence for his health claims AT ALL. As a matter of fact, the evidence shows the mega-dosing on vitamins can be quite harmful to the body. But Ray ignores the facts of science, as usual. The reality is that Ray is a health neurotic, who is insanely afraid of his own death, and he seems to want to start his own "religion" of New Age Health Quackery. Its time that Kurzweil was simply ignored, as he is just REPEATING the same stuff over and over, with almost no scientific evidence to back up his extreme claims. Moore's Law does not apply to most of the things he is applying it to. Here's the bottom line. The Singularity does not exist, and it is NOT coming in the next few decades. Its simply a religious idea put forward by some people without the ability to look realistically at the universe. Personally, I think most of these so-called Singulatarians are somewhat nuts, untrained thinkers, or even delusional, and the rest of them are just trying to sell their New Age Quackery to make a fast buck. Its very amusing when Kurzweil criticizes scientists who work in the field for being so conservative, and calling his ideas "silly". Well Ray, some people have to solve REAL technical problems for a living, and not write Blue-Sky Phantasies on their computer all day long. But not Ray. For Ray, its simply, NANOBOTS TO THE RESCUE!!! They will build us all a new liver. They will save us. Yeah right. Gone to the doctor recently? They can't even get a wart off your toe. Kurzweil discredited himself with his last book with Grossman, and this book is just a rehash of the same old stuff, over and over. The entire book could have been condensed into 50 pages or less, and presented as science fiction speculations, and it could have been a fun read. But this 600 page doorstop is not a serious book, and will only fool those who enjoy following a charismatic leader, and who don't know how to think critically. I am utterly sick of Kurzweil, and his 250 supplements a day, and his New Age Health Quackery, and his endless repetition, and his self-promotion, and his religious fervor. Kurzweil is wrong. Technology will rapidly progress of course, but not like he says. They are not going to be "downloading brains" or other such nonsense, for a very long time, if ever. Speculating about the Future is fine, and is fun. But turning some random speculations into a Religion, and then exaggerating them, and SELLING them in the mass media for your own personal self-promotion, is just a waste of time, and harms legitimate research. Kurzweil is not a real scientist, or a real philosopher. He is a Salesman and a self-promoter. Like the rest of us, he is going to die, and considering the damage he is doing to himself with his self-prescribed new-age alternative health Quackery, Kurzweil likely does not have many years left to live. Don't be tricked by these kinds of self-promoters. Feynman wrote in ONE small essay, "There's Plenty of Room At the Bottom", more than Kurzweil has written in his entire life. Don't waste your money or time with this book.