About
Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, inventor, and futurist. A graduate of MIT in 1970, he created the first reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, and the Kurzweil 250 synthesizer. He received the National Medal of Technology in 1999 and the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2001. Author of best-selling books on artificial intelligence and technological singularity, he joined Google in 2012 as Director of Engineering.
* 1948-02-12
Major works
- The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)non-fiction
- The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)non-fiction
- The Singularity Is Near (2005)non-fiction
- How to Create a Mind (2012)non-fiction
- The Singularity Is Nearer (2024)non-fiction
Key milestones
- 1976Invents the first reading machine for the blind (Kurzweil Reading Machine).
- 1999Receives the National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton.
- 2012Joins Google as Director of Engineering.
Themes
Artificial intelligenceTechnological singularityTranshumanismLongevityFuturism
Sources: id.loc.gov · thekurzweillibrary.com · thekurzweillibrary.com