Review of Transcendent Man (2009) by Raymond S — 30 Dec 2011

This wasn't anything you couldn't learn in Kurzweil's Wikipedia entry, except that you got to hear him speak in his assured manner and give the brief synopsis of GNR (which made the documentary worthwhile).

I appreciated the balancing act the directors provided with voices of dissension, painting Ray as an enemy to his own biology and only looking to create an ersatz father (since his real dad died of cardiac arrest because of a heart defect).

The man is much more complex than that and their nay-saying (based on religious conviction, Kurzweil not being a biologist, predictions being too soon, implications to humanity versus AI and aliens, etc.

) actually made them sound rather desperate arguments against his theories. He's a profound figure in modern society yet he's not Nostradamus. He's human and wants us to be better; I think, in a way, we all do.