Analyzing the Text
The article is made up of many short paragraphs, briefly covering each of Kurzweil’s ideas. This is effective because he is trying to relay much information in a short article.
They are similar in that they both begin very slowly, but when they increase, they increase very rapidly (exponential growth).
Moore’s Law states that the technology is doubling in efficiency and intelligence every year. After 2019, “computer architectures” will grow exponentially instead of transistor features.
Because of the Law of Accelerating Returns, Kurzweil says a computer will be equivalent to the human brain by 2020, but that by 2055 a computer will be equivalent to all of the human brains in the world.
In this context, to “reverse-engineer” is to create artificially an organ that is already constructed and perfectly functional on its own. The idea of engineering an artificial brain would support his predictions of future artificial intelligence.
The tone is dynamic as the paragraph changes from formal academic prose to a conversational tone when he uses “I.”
Kurzweil claims that because of the rapid evolution of technology, beings of artificial intelligence will overtake humans because they can outsmart them. In addition, they will learn to procreate without human intervention. Despite his idea that artificial beings will take over the Earth, Kurzweil does not seem displeased with humanity’s obsession with technology.
Kurzweil attempts to persuade the reader by providing scientific methods and statistics, but the material seems to be too speculative to be realistic.