Ray Kurzweil

The telephone is virtual reality in that you can meet with someone as if you are together, at least for the auditory sense.

The Blue Brain project expects to have a full human-scale simulation of the cerebral cortex by 2018. I think that's a little optimistic, actually, but I do make the case that by 2029 we will have very detailed models and simulations of all the different brain regions.

I do have to pick my priorities. Nobody can do everything.

What we spend our time on is probably the most important decision we make.

Science fiction is the great opportunity to speculate on what could happen. It does give me, as a futurist, scenarios.

My mission at Google is to develop natural language understanding with a team and in collaboration with other researchers at Google.

If you write a blog post, you've got something to say; you're not just creating words and synonyms. We'd like the computers to actually pick up on that semantic meaning.

A lot of movies about artificial intelligence envision that AI's will be very intelligent but missing some key emotional qualities of humans and therefore turn out to be very dangerous.

Once we have inexpensive energy, we can readily and inexpensively convert the vast amount of dirty and salinated water we have on the planet to usable water.

If we look at the life cycle of technologies, we see an early period of over-enthusiasm, then a 'bust' when disillusionment sets in, followed by the real revolution.

I decided to be an inventor when I was five. My parents had given me a few various enrichment toys like erector sets, and for some reason I had the idea that if I put things together just the right way, I could create the intended effect.

Information defines your personality, your memories, your skills.

Biology is a software process. Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells, each governed by this process. You and I are walking around with outdated software running in our bodies, which evolved in a very different era.

I'm working on artificial intelligence. Actually, natural language understanding, which is to get computers to understand the meaning of documents.

All different forms of human expression, art, science, are going to become expanded, by expanding our intelligence.

People say we're running out of energy. That's only true if we stick with these old 19th century technologies. We are awash in energy from the sunlight.

By the time we get to the 2040s, we'll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold. That will be a profound change that's singular in nature. Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter.

New technologies can be used for destructive purposes. The answer is to develop rapid-response systems for new dangers like a bioterrorist creating a new biological virus.

I think we are evolving rapidly into one world culture. It's certainly one world economy. With billions of people online, I think we'll appreciate the wisdom in many different traditions as we learn more about them. People were very isolated and didn't know anything about other religions 100 years ago.

Life expectancy is a statistical phenomenon. You could still be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.

We appear to be programmed with the idea that there are 'things' outside of our self, and some are conscious, and some are not.

Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold.

Our technology, our machines, is part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about human beings.

Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it.

When you talk to a human in 2035, you'll be talking to someone that's a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence.