Ray Kurzweil Is (Still, Somehow) Excited About Humans Merging with Machines

July 1, 2024

a robotic hand touching a human hand

(Washington Post via MSN) – There is a meme, popular among tech world insiders, that distinguishes between two types of people: wordcels and shape rotators. Wordcels are humanists, effete creatures who trade in anachronisms like writing and philosophy. Shape rotators, in contrast, are staunchly modern, possessed of a ruthlessly practical intelligence. They are the movers and shakers — the engineers and programmers who congregate in Silicon Valley in hopes of remaking the world.

The wordcel/shape rotator dichotomy — a 21st-century update of the right-brained vs. left-brained taxonomy — may appear laughably reductive, but it is only half ironic. (Read More)