Ray Kurzweil has plenty of titles already: inventor, author, futurist, techno-optimist, artificial intelligence expert. Now he's adding a Hollywood gloss to that list by writing, directing, producing and acting in his first feature film. He's adapting his latest book to make a movie titled The Singularity Is Near: A True Story About The Future.
The "technological singularity" is a concept that's enchanting to some, like Kurzweil, and terrifying to others. As a result of the exponential progress of technology, Kurzweil believes, we're racing towards a day when the power of the artificially intelligent machines we create will exceed human brainpower. Our computers will then carry on fashioning a new world -- with luck, they'll keep our best interests in mind.
Wired News talked to Kurzweil about the movie that he hopes will give us a glimpse into that world.
Wired News: Can you tell me a bit about the structure of the movie?
Ray Kurzweil: There's an intertwined A-line and B-line: The A-line is a documentary, and the B-line is a narrative. Did you see What The Bleep Do We Know!? I didn't like the movie that much. But you can convey information well with that structure. On its own, the narrative line is so specific, it can't give you all the information. But sitting through 100 minutes of a documentary can be ponderous. So we're combining the two.
WN: What's in the documentary part?
Kurzweil: It contains footage of myself, and also me interviewing 20 big thinkers, talking about their ideas, and their ideas about my ideas. We have people like Eric Drexler, one of the founders of nanotech; Aubrey de Grey, a theorist about radical life extension; Bill Joy.
Bill Joy had a famous cover story in Wired that created a firestorm, because you had a technological leader talking about the dire prospects of technology. His article was based on my previous book, The Age of Spiritual Machines. He and I are often compared. Even though I'm known as an optimist, I've always investigated the promise of new technology versus the peril. In that Wired article, Bill Joy focused on the peril.
WN: So you're debating some of these people in the interviews?
Kurzweil: Yes, there's Bill McKibben -- have you ever heard about this phenomenon called global warming? Well, he coined the term. He has a book called Enough, where he says we should not pursue more GNR -- that's genetics, nanotech, robotics. He argues for the relinquishment view, and says, "Let's relinquish these new technologies, they're too dangerous."
That's not a view I can accept, for three reasons. One, it would deprive us of all the benefits, like curing cancer. One of the questions I ask him is, "If you really want to stop global warming and wean us from fossil fuels, and (technological progress) is the only way to do it, would you give it up?" Second, it would require an authoritarian system to implement such a drastic change. Third, it wouldn't work, it would just drive the technology underground.
WN: OK, that's the A-line. What's the narrative you use for a B-line?
Kurzweil: The narrative story is an outgrowth of the Ramona Project, which I started in the year 2000. I gave a presentation at TED 2001 (the Technology Entertainment Design conference) -- the theme was that in virtual reality you can be someone else.
I turned myself into a computer avatar named Ramona. I had magnetic sensors in my clothing, picking up all my motions and sending the data to Ramona, who followed my movements in real time. My voice was turned into Ramona's voice, so it looked like she was giving the presentation. I was standing next to the screen, so people could see what was happening. A band came onstage, and I sang two songs: "White Rabbit," and a song I wrote called "Come Out and Play." Then my daughter came out, who was 14 at the time, and she was turned into a male backup dancer. Her avatar was in the form of Richard Saul Wurman, the impresario of the conference. He's kind of a heavyset gentleman, not known for his hip-hop kicks, so it was quite a show.
WN: Ramona is also a presence on your website, right? You can interact with her, ask her questions, and sort of test her artificial intelligence.
Kurzweil: Right. It's a real 20-year project of mine, to create an AI that can pass the Turing Test.
WN: So in the movie's narrative, Ramona the avatar is the main character?
Kurzweil: It's a Pinocchio story. She detects a "gray goo" attack, an attack of self-replicating nanobots. The Department of Homeland Security is oblivious to this, and won't listen to her, so she gets her other avatar friends to work on this. But she breaks some homeland security protocols in the process. She's arrested -- and there's a discussion about how you can arrest a virtual person. She hires (civil rights attorney) Alan Dershowitz to defend her, and also to establish her rights as a legal person. She feels she's human enough to have human rights. There's a whole courtroom scene, and finally the judge says, "OK, I'll grant your legal rights if you can pass the Turing Test." She hires Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, to help her become more human, and the plot goes on from there.
WN: You're making a thriller! That's ambitious. How far along in the process are you?
Kurzweil: We have filmed the whole A-line documentary, and we're editing it now. We're in pre-production for the B-line; we will shoot that in the spring. This will be released in late '08.
WN: Who's playing Ramona?
Kurzweil: It stars Pauley Perrette, who plays a very gothy, punky computer sleuth in (TV crime show) NCIS. She's perfect for the part. I play myself in the future, and I have a complex relationship with this woman in the movie. She's a creation of mine, kind of like a daughter of mine, but ancient taboos aren't relevant, so there's a romantic element. And she's trying to become independent, so there's a Pinocchio aspect.
WN: You've already written a book explaining your theories about the approach of singularity; why did you want to do a movie? To spread the meme further?
Kurzweil: Yes, but it's not just an idle desire to spread the meme -- like, I had this idea, and now I want everyone to know about it. There's so much discussion that's totally unrealistic, because people are not aware of this topic. Al Gore gets up there to do his PowerPoint presentation on global warming, and he says, "Within 100 years, carbon levels will be here," as if nothing's going to change! As if it's going to be the same old world in 100 years. He never once mentions nanotechnology.
WN: So you're trying to make people understand how the exponential advances in technology will abruptly and unexpectedly solve many of the world's problems?
Kurzweil: Think how different the world was 10 years ago -- 10 years ago, most people didn't use search engines. That sounds like ancient history now. Generally, people think linearly. I think it's critical that people understand that linear thinking no longer applies. If we capture one part out of 10,000 of sunlight that falls on the earth, we can solve our energy problems. And nanotech will give us the capacity to store (that solar energy). Radical life extensions mean that the current discussion of social security is completely unrealistic. People say, "Oh, there's going to be a deficit in 2027." Their model is based on linear predictions on longevity, productivity and economic growth. The situation will be different when you have 65-year-olds who look and act 35 years old.
WN: It's certainly true that linear thinking runs through everything we do.
Kurzweil: For thousands of years, it actually served our needs to think linearly. If you think about our genes and our brains, they obviously evolved into their modern forms before advanced technology. If you saw something in the trees coming towards you, and you made a linear projection about where it would be in 15 seconds, and where you needed to not be, that actually worked very well. But these days we have different kinds of problems, and we need a different kind of thinking.
