The Singularity is Near

My usual lunch meet-up bailed on me today as it was raining and a long drive, so I was left heading to grab some pho alone. Needing a book, I stopped at Borders on the way and headed for the ‘tech’ section in hopes of something Coockoos’ Egg-ish that somehow I’d never heard of. There on the shelf was this fancy hardback from Ray Kurzweil; The Singularity is Near, with testimonials on the back from guys like Bill Gates and Bill Joy.

As I was checking out, the girl working the counter said that was the third she’d sold that day alone and wanted to know who Kurzweil was. I told her that he was this crazy person that predicted stuff, and had a bit of fame in the 70’s founding a synth and keyboard company - how do you quickly describe the concept to a lay-person?. She was making conversation flirting with me, I think. She noticed that it was only released a few days ago and guessed that the popularity stemmed from that.

The writing is OK so far. The charts and graphics are not very impressive - I read a few Tufte books and am now a snob.