奇点更近 (2024)

《奇点更近：当我们与人工智能融合之时》（英语：The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI）是超人类主义未来学家雷蒙德·库茨魏尔撰写的一本非虚构书籍，是其2005年畅销书《奇点迫近》的续作。本书于2024年6月25日出版。库茨魏尔在本书中重申了前作中的两个关键日期：人工智能（AI）将在2029年达到人类智能水平，以及人类将在2045年与机器融合，并称之为“奇点”。

内容

库茨魏尔在接受Society for Science和Science News采访时表示，这本书将包含一个章节，“展示……人类生活的方方面面在过去几十年乃至几个世纪里是如何发生巨大变化的”。他补充道：“有些人觉得这很可怕。但（奇点）将会是美好的，它将以我们几乎无法想象的方式扩展我们的意识，就像一个聋人第一次听到最美妙的交响乐一样。”

进展

该书最初计划于2021年出版，但被推迟到2022年，尔后又被推迟到2024年。

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI is a nonfiction book by futurist Ray Kurzweil. It is the sequel to his 2005 bestseller, The Singularity Is Near. The book was released on June 25, 2024. Kurzweil reiterates two key dates from the earlier book, which predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) would reach human intelligence by 2029 and that people would merge with machines by 2045, an event he calls "The Singularity".

Content

In an interview with Society for Science and Science News, Kurzweil said the book would contain a chapter "that shows [...] how dramatically every aspect of human life has improved over the decades and over the centuries". He added, "Some people find this frightening. But [the Singularity] is going to be beautiful and will expand our consciousness in ways we can barely imagine, like a person who is deaf hearing the most exquisite symphony for the first time."

Development

The book was initially scheduled to be released in 2021, but was delayed till 2022 and then 2024.

When asked in a 2024 interview with The Guardian why he wrote the book, Kurzweil answered: "The Singularity Is Near talked about the future, but 20 years ago, when people didn't know what AI was", and "It is time to take a look again both at the progress we've made [...] and the coming breakthroughs."

Reception

In The Washington Post, Becca Rothfeld wrote that The Singularity Is Nearer is "daunting to summarize [...] because it is so careless and careening", adding, "Far from the sort of disciplined treatise we might expect from a veteran programmer, this book is a welter of free associations and shameless simplifications." According to Rothfeld, Kurzweil "ventures into foreign territory, with unfortunate results." She wrote, "At times, Kurzweil's prophecies read like passages from messianic religious texts."