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Ray Kurzweil is probably best known for his 70’s era reading machines — early speech synthesizers that could optically scan printed words, recognize them (despite being in multiple typefaces), and speak them back. (We had one of these gizmos at my public library when I was a kid — it was an amazing piece of gear.) He’s also famous for inventing music synthesizers, and it’s not unusual to see the name Kurzweil emblazoned on a digital piano.
These days he’s typically referred to as a “futurist” because of his confidence in a coming singularity: a moment when human life changes radically due to advances in technology. At his current age of 60, Kurzweil probably has some years left in him — but he’s not taking any chances. He’s actively working to prolong his life in order to be around when the singularity occurs.
Wired recently ran an excellent profile of Kurzweil. The profile explains a lot about what Kurzweil thinks is going to happen in coming years, but also spends a good deal of time on the specifics of his health regimen. Here’s a snippet:
Kurzweil does not believe in half measures. He takes 180 to 210 vitamin and mineral supplements a day, so many that he doesn’t have time to organize them all himself. So he’s hired a pill wrangler, who takes them out of their bottles and sorts them into daily doses, which he carries everywhere in plastic bags. Kurzweil also spends one day a week at a medical clinic, receiving intravenous longevity treatments. The reason for his focus on optimal health should be obvious: If the singularity is going to render humans immortal by the middle of this century, it would be a shame to die in the interim. To perish of a heart attack just before the singularity occurred would not only be sad for all the ordinary reasons, it would also be tragically bad luck, like being the last soldier shot down on the Western Front moments before the armistice was proclaimed.
[...] He has unlucky genes: His father died of heart disease at 58, his grandfather in his early forties. He himself was diagnosed with high cholesterol and incipient type 2 diabetes — both considered to be significant risk factors for early death — when only 35. He felt his bad luck as a cloud hanging over his life.
Read the rest for lots more on Kurzweil, the singularity, and photos of all the pills the man takes. There’s also an extensive Wikipedia page on him, including a list of his fourteen honorary doctorates. Finally, if you have the mental_floss magazine Vol 6, Issue 1, check page 28 for our take on him.
(Photo by Michael Lutch, courtesy of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.)
Comments (11)
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Let me know when they invent a vitamin supplement that protects you from car wrecks and violent crimes.
posted by Ira on 4-2-2008 at 3:37 pm
The man has the most expensive urine on the planet.
posted by EV on 4-2-2008 at 3:46 pm
He’s a little out there but inspired some pretty good music: Spiritual Machines by Our Lady Peace is a concept album based on his book and includes some of his future predictions.
posted by ac on 4-2-2008 at 4:18 pm
Does he even have to eat regular food? Isnt he worried about getting too much of something, or is that what he pays that guy for?
posted by Sarah on 4-2-2008 at 4:44 pm
I agree with EV. All those pills and there is no way that his body is even absorbing a majority percentage of that.
Sometimes Kurzweil is a bit zany…this is bordering on Howard Hughesian.
posted by John on 4-2-2008 at 4:52 pm
bets he doesn’t make it to 65??
posted by mike on 4-2-2008 at 7:57 pm
Well, there IS a doctor involved in the pill selection — the article talks about that, and also suggests that they’re not entirely sure what the effects of all this stuff are. But they’re gamely giving it a shot. :)
However it turns out, I’ll be interested in the result. Wouldn’t it be interesting if he somehow did live to 100+?
posted by Higgins on 4-2-2008 at 9:02 pm
I read hwere he hires someone to filter his air and water, too. They change the filters daily. A filter wrangler.
posted by fixedgear on 4-3-2008 at 10:56 am
I’ve heard of this Singularity hypothesis before, way back before the Internet. But it went something like this:
When 10 billion atoms are focused in one group, the form a singular entity, a functional thing. Think of the population of the people on this planet (group), and think of the population of other, more populous species like swallows (European or African), sparrows, geese and ducks who tend to flock as one cohesive entity.
When the human population approaches/reaches 10 billion, we may see more breakthroughs in telekinesis and other abnormal psych stuff.
posted by Johnny Cat on 4-4-2008 at 12:15 am
I read Fantastic Voyage, The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near, and they changed my life. I even found some of his lectures on Itunes and I find myself impatiently awaiting his next book.
Recently read another incredible book that I can’t recommend highly enough, especially to all of you who also love Ray Kurzweil’s work. The book is “”My Stroke of Insight”" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. I had heard Dr Taylor’s talk on the TED dot com site and I have to say, it changed my world. It’s spreading virally all over the internet and the book is now a NYTimes Bestseller, so I’m not the only one, but it is the most amazing talk, and the most impactful book I’ve read in years. (Dr T also was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and Oprah had her on her Soul Series last month and I hear they’re making a movie about her story so you may already have heard of her)
If you haven’t heard Dr Taylor’s TEDTalk, that’s an absolute must. The book is more and deeper and better, but start with the video (it’s 18 minutes). Basically, her story is that she was a 37 yr old Harvard brain scientist who had a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. Because of her knowledge of how the brain works, and thanks to her amazingly loving and kind mother, she eventually fully recovered (and that part of the book detailing how she did it is inspirational).
There’s a lot of learning and magic in the book, but the reason I so highly recommend My Stroke of Insight to this discussion, is because we have powerfully intelligent left brains that are rational, logical, sequential and grounded in detail and time, and then we have our kinesthetic right brains, where we experience intuition and peace and euphoria. Now that Kurzweil has got us taking all those vitamins and living our best “”Fantastic Voyage”" , the absolute necessity is that we read My Stroke of Insight and learn from Dr Taylor how to achieve balance between our right and left brains. Enjoy!
posted by Alvin on 6-10-2008 at 3:12 am
I remembered this post the moment I started watching a YouTube video about all the supplement pills Ronnie Coleman (the bodybuilder) takes (links not allowed in comments, you can Google it). But while Ronnie struggles to remember what all the various pills are, he seems to be able to do it without hired help.
posted by Sergiy Grynko on 7-5-2008 at 5:13 pm