The Singularity Is Near
The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology
Author: Ray Kurzweil
Amazon info
This book was a rare "DNF" as in "Did Not Finish". I read it diligently every night, and I renewed it from the library, so I had it for six weeks - and still DNF. From that evidence, you can deduce that it is not a particularly gripping book and/or quite lengthy. Indeed both are true to an extent - the book is rather repetitious, as it applies "Moore's Law" over and over and extrapolates it out for the next 40 years; and the book weighs in at 672 pages.
That being said, the author is truly visionary and the book is worth skimming for that reason alone. The basic premise is that the pace of change is accelerating and it is accelerating at an accelerating rate. While most people might nod their heads and agree with that statement, Kurzweil works out "semi-mathematically" the meaning of this. Computers that are smarter than most people by 2020, full computer-biological integration by the 2040s (think about how an artificial knee might become an artificial body and how a cochlear implant could become a more general brain implant). I found the book wildly optimistic and missing a crucial element. While microprocessors and memory are exponentially cheaper and faster than they were 5/10/20 years ago, the pace of software development - an absolutely essential aspect - hasn't improved much at all. A point that the author glosses over. But, even if the author is off by 50 years, I think he does outline the three key areas of 21st century activity - Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics.
So, perhaps this is best suited for skimming by people trying to plan their children's careers :) :).