Ray Kurzweil

Raymond Kurzweil (, ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist.

He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments.

He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism.

Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.

He was involved with computers by the age of 12 (in 1960), when only a dozen computers existed in all of New York City, and built computing devices and statistical programs for the predecessor of Head Start.

At the age of fourteen, Kurzweil wrote a paper detailing his theory of the neocortex.

His parents were involved with the arts, and he is quoted in the documentary Transcendent Man as saying that the household always produced discussions about the future and technology.

Kurzweil attended Martin Van Buren High School.

During class, he often held onto his class textbooks to seemingly participate, but instead, focused on his own projects which were hidden behind the book.

His uncle, an engineer at Bell Labs, taught young Kurzweil the basics of computer science.

In 1963, at age 15, he wrote his first computer program.

He created pattern-recognition software that analyzed the works of classical composers, and then synthesized its own songs in similar styles.

In 1965 he was invited to appear on the CBS television program I've Got a Secret, where he performed a piano piece that was composed by a computer he also had built.

Later that year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention; Kurzweil's submission to Westinghouse Talent Search of his first computer program alongside several other projects resulted in him being one of its national winners, which allowed him to be personally congratulated by President Lyndon B. Johnson during a White House ceremony.

These activities collectively impressed upon Kurzweil the belief that nearly any problem could be overcome.

While in high school, Kurzweil had corresponded with Marvin Minsky and was invited to visit him at MIT, which he did.

Kurzweil also visited Frank Rosenblatt at Cornell.

He obtained a B.S. in computer science and literature in 1970 at MIT.

He went to MIT to study with Marvin Minsky.

Kurzweil received the 1999 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the United States' highest honor in technology, from then President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony.

He was the recipient of the $500 000 Lemelson–MIT Prize for 2001.

He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 for the application of technology to improve human-machine communication.

In 2002 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, established by the U.S. Patent Office.

He has received 21 honorary doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) included Kurzweil as one of 16 "revolutionaries who made America" along with other inventors of the past two centuries.

Inc. magazine ranked him No. 8 among the "most fascinating" entrepreneurs in the United States and called him "Edison's rightful heir".

Kurzweil grew up in Queens, New York City.

He attended NYC Public Education Kingsbury Elementary School PS188.

He was born to secular Jewish parents who had emigrated from Austria just before the onset of World War II.

He was exposed via Unitarian Universalism to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing.

His Unitarian church had the philosophy of many paths to the truth – his religious education consisted of studying a single religion for six months before moving on to the next.

His father, Fredric, was a concert pianist, a noted conductor, and a music educator.

His mother, Hannah was a visual artist.

He has one sibling, his sister Enid.

Kurzweil decided at the age of five that he wanted to be an inventor.

As a young boy, Kurzweil had an inventory of parts from various construction toys he had been given and old electronic gadgets he'd collected from neighbors.

In his youth, Kurzweil was an avid reader of science fiction literature.

At the age of eight, nine, and ten, he read the entire Tom Swift Jr.

series.

At the age of seven or eight, he built a robotic puppet theater and robotic game.