Ray Kurzweil believes that humanity is standing on the threshold of the most profound and transformative event in humanity, the “Singularity.”

The Singularity, according to Kurzweil is a future period during which the pace of technological change becomes so fast and far-reaching that human existence will be irreversibly altered. Kurzweil predicts that the knowledge, skills, and personality quirks that make us human will be combined with growing computer power, which will allow for thought, reasoning, communication, and creation in ways that can scarcely even be contemplated today.

This merger of man and machine, coming at the same time as an explosion in machine intelligence and rapid innovation in the fields of gene research as well as nanotechnology, could result in a world where there is no distinction between the biological and the mechanical, or between physical and virtual reality. He predicts the eradication of illness, hunger, poverty, and pollution, as the use of nanotechnology allows for the manufacture of almost any physical product upon demand.

To read more of Kurzweil’s fascinating thoughts about the jump in human evolution he predicts will come sooner rather than late, click the link below.