Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist. Called "the restless genius" by the Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes, Kurzweil’s ideas on the future have been touted by his many fans, ranging from Bill Gates to Bill Clinton. MIT’s Marvin Minsky writes that "with his brilliant descriptions of the coming connections of computers with immortality, Kurzweil clearly takes his place as a leading futurist of our time." George Gilder writes that "Kurzweil’s ideas make all other roads to the computer future look like goat paths in Patagonia." Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy, whose own discussions of the promise and peril of technology have attracted worldwide attention, writes in his now famous Wired magazine cover story that "I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil, the deservedly famous inventor of the first reading machine for the blind and many other amazing things." Stevie Wonder writes "Ray’s technology and ideas have truly been among the sunshines of my life. Kurzweil’s writings are a wonderful riff on the next century from a keen seer, a great inventor, and a good friend."
Ray Kurzweil is widely regarded as one of the leading inventors of our time. TIME Magazine writes, "Kurzweil’s eclectic career and propensity of combining science with practical – often humanitarian – applications have inspired comparisons with Thomas Edison." Kurzweil was the principal developer of the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR), the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed, large-vocabulary speech recognition. These technologies continue today as market leaders in their respective industries, industries that Ray Kurzweil pioneered. Kurzweil has successfully founded and developed nine companies in OCR, music synthesis, speech recognition, reading technology, virtual reality, financial investment, medical simulation, and cybernetic art.
Kurzweil is a widely sought speaker and has given keynote presentations at many leading venues, including the Microsoft CEO Summit, the World Economic Forum, Pop!Tech, PC Expo, Business Week, The Council on Foreign Relations, SIGGRAPH, Cowen, TED, ICASSP, the American Psychiatric Association, Agenda, and many others. His presentations to diverse audiences combine wit and keen insight into contemporary issues of technology and its impact on society. His lectures often include appearances by "Ramona," his "virtual female alter ego," and other engaging demonstrations of cutting-edge technologies that Kurzweil and his teams have developed.
Client Testimonials:
"Ray's presentation was spectacular, to say the least. People are still talking about his innovative ideas and what an impact it will have on all of our lives. Ray truly made our very first UP Experience a wonderful one!"
The UP Experience
"The feedback I've received on evaluation forms and verbally about Mr. Kurzweil's presentation is exceptional. It was a wonderfully thought-provoking evening to begin our conference and added to the success of the event."
Director of the Celebration of Inquiry Conference
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist. Called "the restless genius" by the Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes, Kurzweil’s ideas on the future have been touted by his many fans, ranging from Bill Gates to Bill Clinton. MIT’s Marvin Minsky writes that "with his brilliant descriptions of the coming connections of computers with immortality, Kurzweil clearly takes his place as a leading futurist of our time." George Gilder writes that "Kurzweil’s ideas make all other roads to the computer future look like goat paths in Patagonia." Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy, whose own discussions of the promise and peril of technology have attracted worldwide attention, writes in his now famous Wired magazine cover story that "I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil, the deservedly famous inventor of the first reading machine for the blind and many other amazing things." Stevie Wonder writes "Ray’s technology and ideas have truly been among the sunshines of my life. Kurzweil’s writings are a wonderful riff on the next century from a keen seer, a great inventor, and a good friend."
Ray Kurzweil is widely regarded as one of the leading inventors of our time. TIME Magazine writes, "Kurzweil’s eclectic career and propensity of combining science with practical – often humanitarian – applications have inspired comparisons with Thomas Edison." Kurzweil was the principal developer of the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR), the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed, large-vocabulary speech recognition. These technologies continue today as market leaders in their respective industries, industries that Ray Kurzweil pioneered. Kurzweil has successfully founded and developed nine companies in OCR, music synthesis, speech recognition, reading technology, virtual reality, financial investment, medical simulation, and cybernetic art.
Kurzweil is a widely sought speaker and has given keynote presentations at many leading venues, including the Microsoft CEO Summit, the World Economic Forum, Pop!Tech, PC Expo, Business Week, The Council on Foreign Relations, SIGGRAPH, Cowen, TED, ICASSP, the American Psychiatric Association, Agenda, and many others. His presentations to diverse audiences combine wit and keen insight into contemporary issues of technology and its impact on society. His lectures often include appearances by "Ramona," his "virtual female alter ego," and other engaging demonstrations of cutting-edge technologies that Kurzweil and his teams have developed.
Client Testimonials:
"Ray's presentation was spectacular, to say the least. People are still talking about his innovative ideas and what an impact it will have on all of our lives. Ray truly made our very first UP Experience a wonderful one!"
The UP Experience
"The feedback I've received on evaluation forms and verbally about Mr. Kurzweil's presentation is exceptional. It was a wonderfully thought-provoking evening to begin our conference and added to the success of the event."
Director of the Celebration of Inquiry Conference
