Ray Kurzweil, acclaimed inventor and honored with the prestigious US National Medal of Technology and Innovation, is arguably the leading theoretician and proponent of transhumanism, an intellectual and cultural movement advocating the use of a wide range of increasingly powerful technologies to radically enhance humans. Currently Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google, Kurzweil is in a position, with access to vast resources and an expert support team, to forward transhumanist agendas.

The current book is a sequel of sorts to his influential 2005 The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Although nearly two decades old, that first book is still the best presentation of Kruzweil’s grand vision of the six epochs of our story on Earth—physics and chemistry, biology and DNA, brains, technology, merger of human technology with human intelligence, and the universe wakes up (intelligence saturates matter).

In the new book’s first chapter, titled “Where Are We in the Six Stages?” Kurzweil says humans are in the fourth epoch (technology) but on the cusp of the fifth epoch (merging technology with human intelligence). The beginning of the fifth epoch will be marked by AI passing the Turing test (machine intelligence indistinguishable from human intelligence), which Kurzweil has long (since 1999) predicted to happen by 2029.

Kurzweil gives some attention to the economic, medical, political, social, and other implications of the exponential growth of potent technologies. Two topics with significant religious implications are radical human enhancement and advanced AI/superintelligence. I am not competent to judge Kurzweil’s technological accuracy and predictions. I will reflect on religious and theological implications.

Radical enhancement via innovative therapies and technologies can be located in five categories: physical, cognitive, affective, moral, and spiritual. Superlongevity, also called radical life extension, is the physical enhancement long receiving the most attention. Kurzweil’s prediction, much too optimistic for some others who also think superlongevity is coming, is that the 2030s will see humans transcending, by nanotechnology especially, the limitations of our biology.

Superlongevity or “practical immortality” raises theological issues. Life extension for Kruzweil can include cyber existence, which has led to intense discussions about the role of physicality, revisioning death, and the meaning of life. Religion scholars and theologians disagree on these topics, but generally agree that longevity per se is a misguided goal if not accompanied by a commitment to quality of life.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is machine intelligence that achieves general human intelligence. The debate for decades was whether this was possible; the question has now shifted to when it will occur. As noted earlier, Kurzweil forecasts AGI before the end of this decade. Theologically, AGI puts center stage the question of personhood or, in the biblical tradition, image of God. Artificial intelligence that mimics human-level intelligence will not necessarily be housed in a metal box. With robotics and tissue engineering, e.g., the AGI may be hard to distinguish from a human being.

A second topic, superintelligence, is when AI that mimics human intelligence moves far beyond that, generating “Singularity.” Kurzweil predicts Singularity around 2045 and describes it this way: “Freed from the enclosure of our skulls, and processing on a substrate millions of times faster than biological tissue, our minds will be empowered to grow exponentially, ultimately expanding our intelligence millions-fold.” (73) This will be, quoting from his earlier book, “… a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” (7)

From the perspective of monotheistic faith traditions, superintelligence dances around the attributes of deity. Connected to the internet (think omniscience) and with agency in the world via robotics (think omnipotence), the question becomes whether superintelligence will do good or foster mischief. Are we creating “God” or “Devil” in the computer lab? Kurzweil, with many others, recognizes both promise and peril, hence efforts to value-load newer generations of AI in ways that make it benevolent.

Radical enhancement and superintelligence, along with all transhumanist programs, raise questions about social justice, a concern of many people of faith. Will these programs, even if beneficial, be accessible by only the wealthy and powerful? Kurzweil argues from the history of technology that costs and accessibility are only initially problematic for the general population, and then costs decrease and availability increases.

The Singularity is Nearer is plenty technical, but not overly so. Kurzweil is skilled at explaining complicated technology in lay language. His chapter on consciousness is an excellent summary of this difficult topic and its significance for advanced AI.

Kurzweil is controversial, and his ideas are debatable. That said, he is an influential futurist, and this book is a must-read for anyone staying abreast of conversation about our technological future and the evolution of our species.