How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

Ray Kurzweil

Duckworth Books, Jan 30, 2014 - Computers - 352 pages

'Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.' Bill Gates

In How to Create a Mind, Ray Kurzweil offers a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilisation: reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines. Kurzweil explores how the brain functions, how the mind emerges from the brain, and the implications of vastly increasing the powers of our intelligence in addressing the world’s problems. He thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical - arguably inevitable - future of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Razinha - LibraryThing

Very good, though at times, really not for the casual reader. While Mr. Kurzweil does an excellent job explaining his theories on how we can build a brain...that is, how we currently understand our ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Muir_Alex - LibraryThing

This was a good read from an information perspective, but it was at times rambling and hard to follow. That being said, Kurzweil knows what he is talking about, and provides many great insights into how new AI technologies work, and into where AI will go in the coming years.

About the author

Ray Kurzweil is a prize-winning author and scientist and the director of engineering at Google. Recipient of the MIT-Lemelson Prize (the world's largest for innovation), and inducted into the Inventor's Hall of Fame, he received the 1999 National Medal of Technology, has been described as 'the restless genius' by The Wall Street Journal, and 'the ultimate thinking machine' by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him 8th among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the 'rightful heir to Thomas Edison,' and PBS selected Ray as one of 16 'revolutionaries who made America,' along with other inventors of the past two centuries. He is considered one of the world's leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a 30-year track record of accurate predictions.

Bibliographic information

• Title: How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
• Author: Ray Kurzweil
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Duckworth Books, 2014
• ISBN: 0715647334, 9780715647332
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Artificial Intelligence / General; Computers / Programming / General; Computers / Software Development & Engineering / General; Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics; Science / General; Social Science / Future Studies