The Singularity Is Near

In the opening of Chapter 2, Kurzweil presents a quote by astrophysicist Carl Sagan:

Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes; a half-billion years ago, fish; a hundred million years ago, something like mice; ten million years ago, arboreal apes; and a million years ago, proto-humans puzzling out the taming of fire. Our evolutionary lineage is marked by mastery of change (35).

This is only one of many examples that Kurzweil presents as evidence of the law of accelerating returns. This theory, developed by Kurzweil, proposes that all evolution and advancement develop along a specific pattern. Rather than building on each advancement—one plus one plus one—evolution grows through multiplication. Each new technology makes space for multiple branches of development. Consider, for example, how the development of the smartphone provided the opportunity for myriad applications. This is why, Kurzweil argues, it feels as though time is speeding up: More advances are being made in a shorter amount of time.

One example of this is the development of the internet. Early internet models in the 1960s developed by defense agencies allowed computers to talk to one another. Humans still did not understand the way this new technology would radically alter the landscape of experience.